I have 2 mules; Genova in Sandy and Stinkbreath in Bastok. Genova works quite well as your typical mule in that she earns me quite a bit of money (Sandy has such a strong economy, so AH and bazaar sales do quite well there). However, due to the rather bankrupt Bastok economy on our server, Stinky hasn't ever really been earning his keep. In essence, Stinky was just a quick means by which I could access the Bastok AH and sell the occasional stack of Dryad Roots.



Well, during the recent Holiday special quests, I found out that the Starlight Celebration Trees, when placed alone in your Mog House, would give you the rare and ellusive "Gardening Moghancement". This is a difficult Moghancement to get and to keep since so many furniture items wind up cancelling it out. Since Genova's furniture is there just to give me more storage space, and Maior's furniture is there to give him "Fishing Moghancement", I decided to try my hand at gardening using Stinky's unfurnished lair as a test lab. Needless to say, gardening is much more complicated than it looks....

Why have a garden?

Gardening in FFXI provides you with items. In essence, you plant a seed or young plant of some sort, grow and nurture it, feed it crystals as needed, and then harvest it to get some item. These items may be used in tradeskills, used again in future gardening, used in quests, or simply sold for profit.



While there are a few quests in the game requiring you to grow a certain item, these are few and far between. You may be able to get items from your garden for use in tradeskills, but they will typically be easier to just farm the old fashioned way rather than wait and take the risk of getting something you don't want. This means that most of the reason for gardening is actually to try to make money.



Of course, once you arive at the conclusion that money is the big motivator for gardening, the realization that gardening is quite complex is soon to follow. The vast majority of your experiments will likely just turn up worthless Rock Salt or Little Worms (which, considering the cost of the seeds and the crystals, isn't worth it).

What kind of money are we talking here?

Gardening is one of those gil-making schemes that is somewhat of a gamble. It's not as extreme a gamble as the "Strange Apparatuses" are, but it is still a gamble.



If you grow the perfect plant, you will wind up having a lot of control over what that plant will grow. You can target specific items that will wind up making you a lot of gil. Stacks of Gold Beastcoins, Elemental Ores (worth 100k+ at the AH), and large stacks of expensive crystals from relatively cheap ones are all ways that the average gardenner tries to make money.



But growing the perfect plant is hard work. When you plant, what you plant, when you feed crystals, and when you harvest all play a big part in what you will ultimately get. Screwing up by missing a day or a moon cycle could mean the difference between a profit of 160k gil and a chunk of Rock Salt.

Before we begin

In my next "Essential Gardening" I will get into seed types and the Gardening Moghancement. But, before then, it would be advisable to brush up on some of the basics you will need to get the most out of this Gardening series.



First, if you haven't already read RapRot's excellent Beds, Bath, & Beyond (part of Around Vana'Diel In 80 Days) then you really need to. It provides a basic understanding of Moghancements and why you want them.



Next, you need to have a fairly complete understanding of elemental strengths and weaknesses (since gardening is governed by them). Also in the "Around Vana'Diel In 80 Days" book you will find a chapter on elements called Elementary my dear Watson. Read up on that and learn your elements!