When the snow falls and your plants go dormant for the winter, the simplest solution is to move your garden indoors using planter bowls, right?

Unfortunately, there are several problems with that...

• Trees can't be planted in bowls
  
• Sprinklers can't water plants in bowls and manual watering takes forever
  
• Planter bowls are 4x larger than outdoor plants
  
• It's tedious to move your entire garden indoors every winter and back outside every spring

However, just because you can't plant trees indoors doesn't mean you can't build indoors around your trees!

That's basically all this guide is: plant your plants outside, then build a building around them. Plus how to plant new seeds in your greenhouse garden and some aesthetic tips.

The simplest greenhouse is a ground-level room with a roof, a door, and a sprinkler. Everything else is optional!
You don't even need light for the plants to grow (although your sims may complain if it's dark).

If you close the room off entirely, you can't put plants inside it.

So, leave a gap in the wall and place your plants before closing it.


Then, any time you want to add more plants, just delete a single wall segment and put it back when you're done! (This results in a loss of $14, more if the wall is painted)

When the greenhouse is fully enclosed, you can:

• Tend and harvest plants
  
• Fertilize plants
  
• Complete planting tasks that were placed before the wall was closed

The greenhouse needs an open wall if you want to:

• Plant seeds
  
• Move plants in build mode

Tip: if you pick up a plant by accident while the greenhouse is closed, hit esc to drop it back where it was.

Plants update once per day around 5am. At this time the plant will go dormant if 1) the plant is outdoors, and 2) it is cold enough for there to be snow on the ground*. Dormant plants do not grow and cannot be tended or fertilized.

If a seed is planted while the outdoor temperature is cold, the plant will be dormant for its first day of life even if it was planted indoors in a planter bowl. Despite this, it will grow normally if it is warm enough on the next update cycle (so, a 4-day plant will go from "Planted (Dormant)" to "Sprout" the next day).

Importantly, plants only check whether to go dormant during their daily update. This means that plants can be outdoors at any other time of day without going dormant, even if they appear to be covered in snow.

Pictured: Plants that are weirdly okay with this situation


*Note that this may not be an exact temperature threshold. A seed planted indoors on the first day of Spring while there was still snow outside was dormant even though the outside temperature was 52F. A seed planted 1-2 hours later once the snow had melted was not dormant (57F). A seed planted the following day at 47F with no snow on the ground was not dormant.

Greenhouses need roofs and enclosed walls to protect plants from the cold. A roof will block rain and snow, but will not prevent planting if the walls are open.


Check in Build Mode whether you have the setting "Auto Roofs" on or off.

Auto Roofs enabled: All closed rooms will be covered automatically. Roofs will be automatically removed when you delete an outside wall. Roofless greenhouses will fill with snow, inhibiting sprinkler function.
Auto Roofs disabled: Roofs will remain where they were built even if all walls supporting them are deleted. Snow will not fall inside of roofed greenhouses, but plants will still go dormant if there is a gap in the walls.

Sprinklers can be placed both indoors and outdoors. They cannot intersect with walls, so the smallest greenhouse that can fit a sprinkler is 5x5.

Sprinklers will leave puddles on flooring but not on bare terrain, regardless of whether they are inside or outside.

Sprinklers that are covered in snow cannot be turned on. While there is snow on the ground the auto-water upgrade will not work, even if the sprinkler is indoors. Indoor sprinklers can still be turned on manually in the winter, and will auto-water again when the snow melts.

Plants in planter bowls cannot be watered by sprinklers.

The greenhouse we've built so far is functional and that's about all it is. If you want to make it actually look like a greenhouse, here are some quick tips.

The base game has 5 windows that cover the full height of the wall. Keep in mind the different widths of various windows when planning the size of your greenhouse.

• Window Schmindow (1 tile wide)
  
• Angled Window With Corners (1)
  
• Ventana del Alma (3)
  
• Regifted Window (3)
  
• Limbo Window (2)

The Regifted Window has the least framing; combining that with either the Prank-Proof Door or the Surplus Sliding Doors will get you the most glass coverage.

I personally like the Limbo Window and Niceland Door combination.

If your sim is going to be gardening at night, floor lamps are your friend! Ceiling lights will be moved to the family inventory any time the roof is removed. If you really want ceiling lights, you'll need to turn off auto-roofs so that the roof persists when walls are deleted.

Because plants require bare terrain, you will unfortunately always have the "Unfinished Room" -10 moodlet. So, the only reason to add wall coverings is for the aesthetic (which is a good reason!).

Even with the walls fully covered in windows, you will still see the wall surface at the top of the walls and at the corners of the building.

You will have a section of wall that you will need to repeatedly demolish and rebuild to be able to plant stuff, and painting that wall gets tedious very quickly. I recommend putting the sacrificial wall on a side you won't see it often and just leaving it unpainted.

If you want decorative flooring, I recommend using the Terrain Paint tool rather than floor coverings. Sprinklers leave puddles on floors which will quickly create Vile Surroundings in your greenhouse. (Floors with puddles on them cannot be deleted. Guess how I found this out.)

Unfortunately you can't get positive decor moodlets while in an Unfinished Room, but don't let that stop you. Fill your greenhouse with garden gnomes! Line the paths with flamingos! Add a fountain! Build your green-thumbed sim the greenhouse of their dreams!