To join the Gardener career in The Sims 3, you need the Ambitions expansion pack and a teen or older Sim with at least one level in the Gardening skill, who then registers as self-employed through the phone, a computer, or City Hall. After that, every promotion comes from money earned selling produce, not from hours worked. Below we cover the pack requirement, the exact registration steps, how promotions work, and the fastest ways to earn.
What You Need Before You Register
The Gardener career is a skill career, a type of job that Ambitions added. Without Ambitions, your Sim can still garden and sell produce in the base game, but there is no Gardener career to join and no promotions or bonuses to earn. Ambitions is sold on the EA app (Windows and Mac) and as DLC on the Steam store page; the game is no longer patched, so any current install includes every update it will ever get.
Your Sim also needs:
- Age: teen or older. Children cannot tend gardens; they only build a hidden child gardening skill that carries over when they become teens.
- Gardening skill level 1 or higher. The register option only appears once the skill has started. Plant a few seeds and tend them to get there. Our Sims 3 gardening guide covers planting, watering and weeding in detail.
You do not need to have harvested anything yet, whatever some older guides say.
How to Register as a Self-Employed Gardener
There are three routes, and they all end in the same place:
- Phone: open the Sim’s phone and look under the jobs options for Register as Self-Employed, then choose Gardener.
- Computer: click any computer the Sim owns and use the same Register as Self-Employed option.
- City Hall: send the Sim to City Hall and choose Register as Self-Employed directly on the building.
With the phone or computer, a message tells you the Sim is heading to City Hall to do the paperwork, and the Sim goes there on their own. When they come back, the Gardener career shows in the career panel, where you can track progress toward the next level.
If you later want out, our guide to quitting jobs and professions in Sims 3 covers leaving any career.
How Promotions Work
Skill careers pay no salary. The community-run Sims wiki documents that promotions are tied entirely to money the Sim earns selling produce, and each level has a higher target. The first promotion comes after only a few dozen Simoleons in sales; the later levels ask for tens of thousands. Several levels pay a cash bonus when you reach them.
The level titles, in order, are Cucumber Smasher, Dirt Digger, Clodhopper, Master Weeder, Fertilizer Flinger, Bushwhacker, Seed Sewer, Famed Farmer, Progeny of the Harvest and, at level 10, Agricultural Mastermind.
What counts as a sale, per the same source:
- Selling from inventory (drag a harvested item to the sell area of the Sim’s inventory).
- Selling at the grocery store.
- Selling at the consignment store, also added by Ambitions.
The wiki also notes that the career counts produce your Sim sells, not produce they grew. Harvesting a neighbor’s garden or community plants still earns promotions.
Fastest Ways to Level the Gardener Career
- Grow higher value plants. Rare and special seeds become plantable at Gardening level 7, and higher rarity produce sells for more. Collect seeds around town to find them.
- Aim for Perfect quality. Quality raises the sale price, so water, weed and fertilize on schedule. Fertilizing unlocks at Gardening level 3.
- Plant a Money Tree. The Money Tree is a special base game plant that drops money bags when harvested. The community wiki’s standing tip is that money bags are the single fastest way to climb this career.
- Take the Green Thumb trait. Green Thumb Sims are natural gardeners, and at skill level 6 the trait lets them revive dying plants.
- Use a unicorn. With Pets, a household unicorn can bless plants to push them through growth stages; see our guide on adopting a unicorn in Sims 3.
Once the career is running, gardening also pairs well with other self-employed skill careers such as fishing. Our Sims 3 fishing guide covers that side, and the rest of the series lives on our Sims guides hub.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which pack do I need for the Gardener career in Sims 3? The Ambitions expansion pack. It adds skill careers and the Register as Self-Employed option.
Do I have to grow the produce myself? No. Per the community wiki, the career counts produce your Sim sells, so harvesting from neighbors or community plants counts too.
Can teens join the Gardener career? Yes. Skill careers are open to teens and older, as long as they have at least one level of the Gardening skill.
Does the Gardener career pay a weekly salary? No. All income comes from selling produce, plus a one-time bonus at some promotions.
Where is the self-employed option if I cannot see it? Check that Ambitions is installed and that the Sim has at least one Gardening level. The option appears on the phone, computers and City Hall only after both are true.