The Sims 4offers dozens of activities, skills, and jobs to master. As such, the players can spend hundreds of hours directing their Sims' life and still not run out of content to try out, things to do. One of the more peaceful activities is gardening.
Not only can the Sims use gardening to grow their own food, but it also comes in handy for spell casters who use the ingredients for potions, or even vampires. But to grow a lot of produce requiresfertilizingthe garden properly. Some ofThe Sims 4fertilizersare better at this task than others. The good news is that most of them are relatively easy to come by and will help the player create a rich garden.
Updated on August 01, 2025, by Nahda Nabiilah:The Gardening Skill has been in the Sims Franchisesince the release of the first Sims game. It kept getting more advanced with each version until players discovered all the Gardening features in The Sims 4. One of the crucial features is fertilizing the plants, which is a game changer in the Gardening Skill. Simmers can improve the quality of their garden by constantly fertilizing the plants to harvest the best crops. Additionally, there are extra features in The Sims 4 that allow you to gain extra help in the garden.
11Sheep And Mini Goats
A Very Cute Help
Taking care of a large garden might become a hassle as there is a lot to do. Although fertilizing is essential, the quality won’t be the best if the plant requires care, which is where Sheep and Mini Goats come in.The adorable creatures are a part of the Horse RanchExpansion Pack, and players can adopt them through many different methods.
Once Simmers takes care of the Sheep and Mini Goats and the bond made is strong, the Sheep will automatically eat the weeds from any plant, while the Mini Goats will hunt the bugs flying around the garden. This will significantly improve the quality of crops, making them perfect for fertilization.
10Golden Chicken
Improve Quality Of Plants
Similar to the Sheep and Mini Goats, Chickens in general were introduced in the Horse Ranch Expansion Pack.To have a Golden Chicken, feed a Hen or a Rooster a Golden Treat.
The great benefit from all of this is the moment they transform into a Golden Chicken, they can walk around Simmers’ garden and improve the quality of available crops. This means that the Chicken will buff the fertilizer’s work, creating a perfect product to sell for more Simoleons inThe Sims 4.
9Bee Box
Pollinate Nearby Plants
Bees in general have a lot ofadvantages inThe Sims 4. Simmers can buy aBee Boxfrom Buy Mode and place it anywhere on the lot to start bonding with bees, as it’s a crucial step. Later on, playerscan start collecting honey from the box, which offers various benefits for Sims, either by cooking, selling, or eating it directly. After increasing friendship with bees, they will automatically start tending to nearby plants.
When bees fly around the garden and pollinate nearby crops, they offer a small fertilizing buff that can be stacked with other fertilizers like growfruit. This helps the crop evolve faster than normal crops found in players' gardens. Additionally, after bonding with the bees for a while, a new option appears that allows Simmers to collect a swarm of bees and manually send them to Pollinate Nearby Plants.
8Patchy The Straw Man
Scarecrow Becomes Alive To Help With Gardening
Patchy the Straw Man is a scarecrow introduced in the Seasons Expansion Pack. Players can buy it from the Outdoor Activities category for $450 and although it seems expensive, Patchy will be a huge help later on.
To make him come to life,keep speaking with the scarecrowuntil Simmers becomes his friend. This will allow players to Ask for Gardening Tips, which greatly increases Sim’s Gardening Skills, and more importantly, Patchy will come alive for a few hours and help with the Garden. Since the scarecrow is an excellent gardener, it will automatically fertilize the available crops. Additionally, Simmers can Check Pockets for Seeds, which will help grow more crops to fertilize players' plants.
7Fish
Keep Them Fresh
Since gardening is an activity that connects the Sims to nature, they can use their love for all things outdoors in another activity as well.Fishing is a separate skillthat will help the Sims relax as well as catch fish for cooking… and fertilizing as well. The game contains many different types of fish, but the general rule is that the higher value the fish has (usually because it’s fresh), the better it will be to use it as a fertilizer. So, after the Sim catches the fish or buys it, they should keep it in the fridge until they’re ready to use it to fertilize their garden.
Most of the time, the fish should have a value of 50 Simoleons or more in order to function as an effective fertilizer. Lower-priced fish are more likely to have a medium fertilizer power instead of a high one. So, while the likes of perch or goldfish won’t help the Sims' gardens a lot, tuna, salmon, sturgeon, or wolf eel are a different story.
As mentioned before, some fish perform as fertilizers better than others, so here are a couple of options that are 50 Simoleons or more and where to find them:
6Dragon Fruit
Take Advantage Of Grafting
Dragon Fruits are one of the many rare fruits that can be used as excellent fertilizers. Due to its rare nature, players might struggle to find it in a Rare Seeds packet. Thankfully, by leveling up the Gardening Skills and unlocking Grafting,players can create their own Dragon Fruit bush.
First, take a Slice from a Snapdragon plant, which is a common crop found plenty in the Worlds ofThe Sims 4. Next, find a Strawberry bush which is mainly located in Willow Creek, and graft the previous slice onto the Strawberry bush to create a hybrid plant that provides Dragon Fruits.
5Growfruit
Hard To Get Unless You Cheat
Growfruit is by far one of the best fertilizers inThe Sims 4that no player should miss out on using if they’re interested in gardening. But just like some of the bestThe Sims 4objects, the growfruit can be harder to come by. It originally appeared in the game as a part of the Spring Challenge and is still available.
Fortunately, those players who have a hard time getting to the growfruitcan use the power of cheatsto access it. The proper cheat code for this isbb.showhiddenobjectswhich will also give the players access to many other useful objects that will enrich their gameplay even more. Another alternative how to get the growfruit is by purchasing the rare seed packets and hoping that they will contain the right plant.
4Other Plant-Based Fertilizers Also Don’t Disappoint
Use Plants For Plants
Of course, no matter how good a fertilizer the growfruit is, it’s not the onlySims 4plant that fulfills this purpose. As a result, the Sims can grow plants in their garden and either their higher-quality plantsto earn extra moneyor use them as fertilizers for new plants instead. If the player decides to choose the second route, they should focus on growing plants such as roses, the snapdragon fruit, chrysanthemums, the bird of paradise plants, mushrooms, trash fruit, and quill fruit.
Some of these are available for purchase in the seed packets, while others are accessible via other means. For example, the bird of paradise plant is a part of the flowers of the Romance festival. Of all these plants, roses are probably the easiest fertilizers to come by, which makes them a good place to start before the players move on to getting more complex and rarer fertilizers.
3The Hermit’s Secret Fertilizer
Find The Hermit
The worlds ofThe Sims 4contain many secrets, one of which is the hermit’s secret fertilizer. This form of fertilizer is available only to thosewho have the Outdoor Retreat game pack, making it one of the easier-to-miss fertilizers in the game. There is an outdoor retreat location in the Granite Falls where the hermit resides.
After the Sims find and become friends with him, they can ask him to share his secret fertilizer recipe with them. Their hard work doesn’t end there. Once they get the recipe from the hermit, they also have to collect the right ingredients for the fertilizer. Its strength is worth it, though, and creating the fertilizer from the ground makes for satisfying gameplay for more ambitious players.
To prepare the secret fertilizer recipe, which is called Fungal Infusion, collect the following ingredients:
2Pets Poop
Not The Golden One
Not only canpets inThe Sims 4produce golden poop, especially dogs, but it’s also possible to use the poop as a powerful fertilizer. And unlike other fertilizers that take a long time to produce or cost money to buy, this type of fertilizer is free.
Using it is simple. The Sim should place it in their inventory and then use it on the plant they wish to fertilize. However, it sometimes happens that fertilizing with poop doesn’t work. If that’s the case, it helps to first use a different type of fertilizer, a more traditional one, and only then try the pet poop again.
