Optimised Gem-Gardening Introduction
This is a quick guide aimed at those people who have managed to acquire at least one Garden Gem and are planning to use it to farm resources, including trees.

The problem with trees is three-fold:
1. Trees can physically obstruct you (a number of players have used to block areas of the game world).
2. Ankama's solution to point 1. was to limit the amount of trees that can be planted next to each other. A tree cannot have more than 1 other tree next to it.
3. Trees physically obscure sight. You cant click what you can't see.. and even when you can see it due to the transparency, you still can't click it (though a new patch might be about to alter this).

A single Garden Gem gives a 4*4 plot of fertile soil. This is enough to grow 8 trees (the adjacency restrictions prevent more). This leaves you with 8 unused cells, which you can use to grow another resource like herbs or crops. Both herbs and crops grow far faster than trees, meaning you will be able to plant and reap multiple harvests before your trees bare fruit.

A Trick
The tree "adjacency rule" is blind. When you try to plant a tree, the game will check how many trees are adjacent to that spot, and that spot only. This means if you try to plant a tree at the end of a line of trees, the game will only see one tree already there, and allow it. If you tried to plant a tree half-way along this line of trees, the game would see two trees (one on each side of where you are trying to plant) and deny you.

The Solution

Green cells: Tree cells.
Yellow cells: Always visible crop/herb cells.
Red cells: Crop/herb cells obscured by last 2 stages of tree-growth.

1. My personal preferences is to start at the far corner, and plant a row down the left-hand back-edge. You can then plant along the other back-edge. Making sure you don't block off your bridge-access. As you are planting right at the back of the gem-garden anything that grows in those spots won't prevent you see anything else in the rest of the section.
2. So that you can have a clear front-edge, and better visibility, you don't plant trees directly along the front-edge, but perpendicular to it (one space in from your back-edges of trees).
3. Fill the empty slots with crops and herbs.
4. During the first stages of tree-growth, you will still have a full view of your garden, and can happily pick and choose which ones to harvest. However, in the last two stages of tree-growth, when the tree is fully grow (with and without fruits) the front area of trees will block your sight to the smaller crops. The only way to reach them is by clicking around the edges of the trees where there is no overlap of graphics, and in the case of the rear-most plants you will have to wait until the trees can be chopped down. The penultimate stage of tree-growth is the main reason for this solution, it is the point at which the trees obscure the other plants, but do not have fruit themselves... Chopping down the tree is possible, but you would miss out on the fruit (for crafting, selling, or replanting).

Here is how it looks in the game:


For Larger Gardens
If you manage to acquire two Garden Gems the best solution is to create two separate gardens within your bag. This will provide an additional 4*4 section (16 cells in total). Combining two gems gives a single 5*5 garden (which is only an additional 9 cells more than a single garden).
If you do end up making a double-garden then follow the same basic rules; plant trees along the back edges, and perpendicular to the front edges. With more space for trees, it means they will obscure more of the other crops, but you will still have more overall.

Update: The 0.206 patch has made trees grow faster, so you can get 1:1 tree:crop/herb growth. This is still applicable in cases where you plant at different times, or if you want to harvest crop/herbs before they bud (gem-gardening often leaves you with a lot of spare seeds)

This post has been edited by GoldfishGod: 28 Oct 2009, 17:33

wow god one thanks god

i will use this ( if i gwet a gem )

The pictures are not showing for me. So I'll post a comprehensive list of possible tree setups using text.

Symbol Key

---------------------
4x4
---------------------
One side of the gem must be completely blocked to allow the maximum number of
trees for 4x4 which is 8.
---------------------
Clear View
---------------------
Use this setup to keep the front left corner of trees from blocking the next gem up.
ie. Prevent vitrines in higher gems from being blocked by trees

---------------------
Easy Harvest
---------------------
Use this setup if you are not concerned about visibility and simply want to harvest
your trees/seeds as fast as possible. This setup allows for the easiest movement.


----------------------
5x5
----------------------
I really haven't found too many options for 5x5 setups. So I'm posting the ones
that provide the easiest movement. All of them allow the maximum trees for 5x5
which is 14.
----------------------
Horizontal Passage
----------------------
This setup will allow the most trees while using horizontal passage.
Vertical passage has been blocked to allow for more trees.



----------------------
Vertical Passage
----------------------
This setup will allow the most trees while using vertical passage.
Horizontal passage has been blocked to allow for more trees.



This post has been edited by NULLTheHunted: 28 Apr 2010, 13:11