In real world, lots of people dream of having a garden with all kinds of plants. However, it is really difficult for common people in cities because of the limited land resources and high prices. As for the world of FFXIV, this will never be a dream out of reach. Then how can you own a successful garden in FFXIV? There are three essential things that you must pay close attention to: seeds, soil and fertilizer.

In FFXIV, each bed can take 1 seed and 1 soil. A Deluxe Garden Patch with 8 beds will therefore hold up to 8 seeds and 8 soils. Different types of seeds are provided in the game and you can just ask a local botanist. Most of these seeds are not very useful since the plants are easy enough to gather by a botanist. Gardening should therefore be used to crossbreed for seeds that are rare to find or even impossible to obtain otherwise.

The next important component of gardening in FFXIV is the soil. There are three different types of soils, each with 3 different grades. The higher the grade is, the more potent their effects will be. If you can gather or afford Grade 3 soils, then there is absolutely no reason to use Grade 1 or 2 of any soil type. The first and most useful type of soil is Thanalan Topsoil which increases crossbreeding chance and will be used 99 percent of the time. The second type is Shroud Topsoil, which is used To increase yield quantity, Shroud Topsoil will be a good choice. It can be used to harvest more plants per seed and even more seeds per harvest (there are a few plants that Shroud soil will not increase plant/seed yield: Blood Pepper, Broombush, Glazenut, Jute and Thavnairian Onion). The final soil type is La Noscean Topsoil. It is used to increase the possibilities of obtaining high-quality plant yields, which can be useful for Culinarians interested in using HQ materials.

Fertilizer is the third thing you should attach great importance to in FFXIV. Using fertilizer will reduce grow time by approximately one Earth hour (with some exceptions). However, there is a limit to how much fertilizer you can use before it becomes ineffective.

Besides, a successful garden in FFXIV also requires tending from time to time. An untended garden will lead to the loss of the plants. Plants need to be tended at least once a day to ensure that they are growing well, otherwise they will wither and die (a few higher tier plants will need tended more often). When a plant is ready to be harvested in the game of FFXIV, it will stay in that way indefinitely so you can keep it in the fields if you want.