As backyard gardeners we try to get our families interested in our pastime but how do you compete with video games?
I asked a nephew what he wanted for Christmas and the list was long, starting with the latest game console and several video games -- none with titles relating to plants and animals unless you count dragons and dark forests.
I can somewhat understand the attraction; many years ago I followed Bilbo Baggins as the hobbit wandered middle earth. When our neighbors bought their kids an Atari with PONG my brothers and sisters would be at their house more often than ours, arguing over who gets to play next.
Real life became more of an adventure. There are few games, electronic or otherwise that will keep me inside for long but every now and then, especially during our long Pennsylvania winters, a little fantasy gardening can’t hurt.
Gardening video games may be more interesting to non-gardeners than those of us who battle real creatures that fly or those with hundreds of rasp-like teeth; some of our enemies seem invisible and others can carry ten times their weight -- all are trying to get at our prize tomato or pumpkin. But if you need a break from re-reading last year’s gardening catalogs or journal notes from the last century here are a few games that might keep your green thumb in shape until springtime.
☼ Garden with Insight and PlantStudio [1]
The Garden with Insight garden simulator according to its designers, “…uses weather, soil, and plant growth models to simulate a simple garden in an open-ended microworld setting. Years of gardening can be simulated in minutes.”
With PlantStudio you can ‘grow’ plants over their life cycles, producing lifelike images at any age. You can design, animate and breed a wide variety of plants.
Both are completely free for the downloading. Their designers state, “…making money was never as important to us as making a great product that helps people to learn about sustainable gardening.”
This downloadable game has more than 30 plants to tend to. Snails, beetles, and other dangers wait to destroy your prized vegetation. “Invest” in seeds, pest control and hardware. The more you grow the more “money” you earn.
The full version costs $20 in real money.
One reviewer writes, “Enchanting watercolor graphics and ethereal background Celtic harmonies endow the innovative puzzle mechanics of this game with a magical storybook quality.”
Another reasonably priced game; similar to Garden Dreams.
“… fry your brain by trying to solve seemingly impossible puzzles that take place in a relaxing Zen garden.” The full version ($20) comes with a garden designer which lets you create and play your own gardens and share them with others.
If you have a child at home who likes to climb on your lap every time you sit down at the computer check out these cute educational (and free) on-line games developed for preschoolers:
☼ Plant Maker and Plant Homes [6]
☼ Compost 4 Fun and Ladybugs [11]
If the Xbox 360 is on your child’s Christmas list, this brand new video game could be a stocking stuffer:
Exclusively for the Xbox 360, the Viva Piñata video game is, “a window to another world where wild-roaming, living piñata animals inhabit a growing, changing garden world. Take control of this environment and the piñata within it, influencing its contents to create your very own pet paradise."
This game isn’t cheap (about $50), but may be worth it if it helps to get children interested in gardening.
Not quite what my nephew would call a game and absolutely no relation to the super-popular Final Fantasy; Fantasy Gardening puts plants, products and methods to the test and challenges you to predict the results. The developers state that, “Fantasy Gardening is for thinking gardeners.”
There’s no charge to “play.”
For $13 you get to help Maggie as she gardens. A game review in PLAYWHAT.compleads, “Shun all the killing and destruction for awhile and do something positive. That's right, plant a garden.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself.