Will the Gardener Ever Be Fixed? Or is it just me?

[Beckett]

I looked through the posts, but the last time anyone mentioned this problem was back when Nightlife came out.

I don't know how long this has been broken, but I seem to recall a time when the gardener wasn't too squeamish to walk on the plants so that he could reach those against the house. Not only that, but he could water them from ANY angle, not just the little notched edge.

Now, though, all the gardener does is take care of the plants that are not "blocked" by anything else, which includes other plants, fences, etc. So, those plants get overgrown and die. It makes it really tough to have a hedge maze or flower field, or even beds that utilize the diagonal flowers on the ends to line up with the house.

Is there a hack or a patch besides perfect plants that will fix this? I don't really care for plastic plants, either, since they just clutter up the build and buy catalogs. I have all the expansions and stuff packs. Or, is it just that my game has really lazy and picky gardeners?

[rohina]

I haven't noticed this, but then again, since Seasons, I have been making all my sims garden obsessively.

[pixiejuice]

My gardener sucks too!  I have to move all my shrubs away from any walls, and the half-flowers away from borders before he'll touch them.  It is annoying, but I don't remember it ever being different.

[KatEnigma]

I think we're all using the plastic plants hack or the plastic plant downloads, at this point. For corners, I always use the plastic ones for the corners and angles against the building, and the plain ones for everything else, pulled in a direction with nothing blocking them. That way I still have the gardener come and do useful things, but I avoid all the stomping and handwaving.

[jsalemi]

I just use TwoJeffs' alwaysperfectplants and don't even worry about it.

[KatEnigma]

Yeah, I don't want them to be always perfect, so I have the plastic ones.  If I don't have an excuse for the gardener to come and stay longer than 2 seconds, how could I fulfill all those WooHoo with X Service Sims wants?

[ZiggyDoodle]

but I seem to recall a time when the gardener wasn't too squeamish to walk on the plants so that he could reach those against the house.

My gardeners have always thrown hissy fits when they can't reach plants because they are too close to the house or otherwise obstructed.  Ditto for my Simmies. 

Which is rather stupid since the plants aren't obstructed on all sides.

[Zazazu]

Yeah, I don't want them to be always perfect, so I have the plastic ones.  If I don't have an excuse for the gardener to come and stay longer than 2 seconds, how could I fulfill all those WooHoo with X Service Sims wants?

Bartenders. Call 'em over, and tackle them before they can say "Where's the party?". I haven't seen a gardener since Nightlife, first due to plastic plants and now due to alwaysperfect. Messy-looking plants make things not pretty.

[Zeljka]

I still use Inge's NoCareFlowers_patch from ages ago, it makes the Maxis flowers decorative.
I prefer it to TJ's because it also prevents butterflies (which I found distracting, particularly when they were oblivious to the walls and would flutter around inside)

[Beckett]

Thanks for the input, everyone. Since I have tons of downloads already, I guess I'll go with the perfect plants hack again. I wish there was a cheat that would let you "clean-up" a messy garden. That way, the gardener could come, take care of the plants he/she could reach, stomp and moan about the others, leave, then I'd cheat and fix the rest of them so they didn't die. Oh well, maybe when the next EP comes out they'll bork something that will make gardeners attack plants from all sides again. One can always wish.