Introduction

Choosing The Right Colors

When it comes to choosing colours for your house you have to make sure they don't clash, to the right you will see the 3 different catagories for colour, there are the cool colours which consist of blues, greens, and whites; then you have the warm colours such as oranges, browns and reds; finally you have the vibrant colours, which in the sims is usually just the pinks. When using the warm colour schemes you can use greens with the colours, this is because dark greens are earthly and fit well.

When doing the colour schemes for a pre built house in the garden, you should always look to see what style of house it is and what will fit with it, for example you are not going to find a small cottage in the woods with bright pink flowers sprouting in every direction, warm colours would be more appropriate. Again if you had a modernist white home, you wouldn't add in warm colours as it would damage the effect, you would stick with the cool blues and whites.

NEVER mix colour schemes around the garden, this is when you have a patio with nice warm colours around it, then a few metres away you find a gazebo covered in vibrant pink flowers and then the house has some borders with cool colours in it, they clash even if they aren't right next to each other, your house will be a hodge bodge or colours and styles, it would be like water that is not hot nor cold nor luke warm!

Terraforming - Forming the Terrain

Terraforming is the editing of the land, this includes ponds, hills, rock faces etc. To the right is an image of the main 3 styles of terraforming; all of these can really help to enhance a houses' looks and it is well worth reading if you want to add a little interest to your home.

Rocky Hills: Rocks hills are not curved and smooth like normal hills, they are jaggedy and rough, when designing one it is better to try and use the small brush with a lot of hardness as this gives a jagged effect. When you have finished forming the terrain into this rocky shape you need to make sure you use an appropriate form of terrain paint, you should use a stone terrain paint, but at the bottom use the normal grass terrain and put it on a high softness so you can blend the rocks in with the ground. A little tip is not to have a rocky hill sticking up in the middle of your garden, try and blend it in with the landscape, or sink your house so you can have more natural rocks.

Smooth Hills: To create smooth hills you need to turn the hardness down to very low and select the circular tool, then use a large size brush and make a few clicks, try and vary where you click it to get it rounded all the way around instead of clicking on the same spot again and again. When painting a smooth hill you don't want to see rocks, you want to see luch grass, flowers also work well, i would advise that you use low hardness so the flowers and grass terrains blend together well.

Ponds: I will keep this relatively short because there is a whole section on ponds below; but when placing a pond don't make the tool really hard because your pond will be obscenely deep, and don't make it too soft other wise you will be clicking lots and lots before the water appears. Just make sure you keep it as a natural shape and add in terrain paints specific to the type of pond you are building (see below)

Ponds - Adding in Water Features

Ah ponds glorious ponds, a must have for almost every house; ponds can give you great looks in your garden whether you want it to be natural looking or structed or even a gigantic waterfall, ponds can do it all!

Constructed Ponds Constructed pools are pools that would be man made to go in your garden, this ponds are often either shaped in a circle or some sort of variation on a circle, they won't be ponds and streams but can be VERY large! Once you have a nice cirular pond in place you need to add in stone terrain paint, this makes it look like it has a solid base and has been constructed on purpose, you should then use a limited amount of planting for effect, so not lots of overgrown shrubs.

Natural Ponds When creating a natural pond you are going for a rogue effect, something that has been stubled across and maintained, the maintaned part is important because otherwise you would have a pond full with plants and no one want that in game! Natural ponds can be stream that stretch along the lot of they can be irregular shaped ponds, you don't find perfect circle ponds in real life that you just stumble accross. So make it an unusual shape and then use a dirt terrain paint to give it an earthly and natural look; then use a variety of different shrubs and plants all over the place in bunches to give it a maintaned but natural look, please DON'T put shrubs under the water, that just doesn't happen.

Waterfalls Ah waterfalls, now these are very specific in use, you want to try and use them on a lot that already has a hill in it, otherwise you will end up with some huge ugly lump in the ground which somehow has water getting to the top of it! So try using a hill lot when placing your waterfalls, it is important to get a good curve at the top of it to make it look like it is rolling off the top like in the picture to the right. Cover the waterfall with a rock terrain paint and around the edges and make sure there is a pond at the bottom for water to collect in so it looks real.

Plant Placement - Arranging your Garden

Name	Description	Name	Description
Stairs	The most basic form of arranging! This method is applicable to all other styles and should always be used or considered while landscaping. Starting low at the bottom and making your way up to the top, where the highest point will be!	Iwagumi - Rock Formation	This style is all about balance and being minimalistic. A traditional Asian style that takes patience and care to pull off.
Concave	Concave is a simple arrangement that means exactly as the name implies. The outer edges are high and the farther you make your way into the middle, the lower it gets.	Convex	Convex is the exact opposite of concave. As you make your way into the middle, the set up gets taller.
Rectangle	Rectangle is a very simple set-up that can never fail. All of the plants are the same height. Nice horizontal top and easy to do.

Terrain Painting - Where to put Dirt

Terrain painting is a key element to get right when you are creating a house, and with the sims 3 it is easier than ever with the hardness intensity slider. So a few things to remember when terrain painting-

Don't mix styles or terrains: grass and sand aren't going to intertwine well.
Always put a little dirt terrain under your trees, always!
No terrain is one colour!
Ponds should be covered around the edges.
Playgrounds and swings get trodden on a lot so the grass wares away.
Don't bother making the underneath of your house all pretty, no one will see it.

To expand more on this i will run through how to blend terrains a little better; when you start the game you have the normal grass, most people tend to cover this all over with a slightly richer grass because it is more appealing, and frankly it isn't a bad start, however most people leave it at that. You want to have a good nice base but once you have this you want some nice colours in there, so turn the intensity right down to very soft, then use various terrains together, having some of the flower terrains is great for country homes, dirt and mud terrains when placed lightly also give a great effect! What you must avoid doing is having patchy terrain, you don't want dots of terrain here and there, also don't use every terrain covering because you will turn out with a messy, un attractive terrain. Be clever and carefull when placing terrain, and place it for effect.

Fences - Containing your Garden

Lots and lots of people get fences wrong, the idea of fences is as much for decorative purposes as it is for keeping stuff penned in, so remember that when putting fences in with your house. Read the different ways of using fences below, it will teach you when to use a fence and the type of fence you should use with it.

Borders: Borders are used purerly to border in plants and pathways, you don't put them around your lot because someone would just walk over it, and that would defeat the object of even having a fence! Border fences are very low to the ground and in TS3 they are the first fences that appear in the catalog; they come in wood, brick and metal. When placing a border make sure if it is a flower border that you put the fence down before the plants otherwise you won't be able to place you fence even with moveobjects turned on. Don't use borders on old style lots of woodland lots, keep them for modern lots and everyday homes.

Yard Fencing: This is the type of fencing that you use to surround the yard or back garden of your house, or in fact the front, however NEVER put a fence all the way around your house, EVER! Right now i got that one out of me we can talk yard fences; typically these are stone, brick or shrub, you can see 2 yard fenced in the image to the right. When placing them try to start next to your house and go around in a square shape and back in on your house, this creates an enclosed patio where your sims can sit, swim, etc. you can put a fence in if you wish, a front should wrap around your house again and must have a fence of your sims will be trapped outside!

Balcony Fencing Balconies are used in lots and lots of houses and lots and lots of people get it completely wrong, let's just get one thing straight to begin, when placing a balcony fence you use WOOD, you do not use border fences because you would fall off, and you would not use stone or brick because it would collapse, wood or iron is suitable for balconies. Balcony fencing is pretty self explanatory really, it just needs to wrap around the edge of the balcony, just make sure there are no floor tiles sticking out the other side of the railings.

Pools - Adding Some Fun

Basic pools are a great addition to a yard. They offer fun and build muscle for your sims. This section is geared toward helping you incorporate a pool without killing space. Some ideas you can try to play around with are...

Adding in decorative stairs
Adjusting the depth
Creating Islands
Pool in a pond - TS3 only
Using diagonals and the circular extensions - TS2 only
Painting the sides of the pool

...Some other things that are neat to experiment with are adding in water lilies and reeds to make it look dirty or worn, or even grand.

Construction - Gazebos, Decks, and Patios

Finishing Touches - Fine details

Finishing touches are what make the house look complete and full. By adding in these tiny changes your landscaping looks much more professional and beautiful every time. In particular, people have a way of neglecting these things the most. They are...

Putting dirt under plants
Not rotating plants
Having leafs cut through walls
Having all of the same plant
Filling the lot with one terrain paint
Blocking windows or doors

...when really they are all extremely easy to fix. The reason why dirt should always be put under plants is because the plant will block light and water from reaching the grass in real life, causing the grass to die. Many novice builders or landscapers make the mistake of just putting down trees in a row. Which this is okay, you have to remember to rotate them so that it looks like different trees, since not all birch tree's grow the same. Having plants cut through walls is self explanatory. It isn't so pretty when there are leaves appearing through sold walls. Another easy thing to fix is using all of the same plant. Having all roses may look pretty, but it isn't something you would see too often. Use trees and other bushes to break repetition. A huge peeve of mine is when lots are covered in total green grass. Perfect lawns are myths. Having dirt outline your house and under your trees as well as fading at the edges of lots adds spectacular detail and realism to any lot. One last thing that should be taken into account is when your plants block windows or doors. In some cases, it is okay. But for the most part, a tree would block a view or a pathway. Always take it into consideration.

Particular Styles - Themed Gardens!

Style	What it Includes	Style	What it Includes
Japanese Gardens	Rocks Bonsai Trees Japanese Maples Bamboo Bridges Water Features Grass, Sand, and Rock Terrain	Seaside Landscapes	Palm Trees Short Palms Cypress Trees Driftwood / Sea Junk Tropical Plants hammocks Sand and Rocky Terrain
Evergreen Set-ups	Needled Trees Ferns Mostly Green Foliage Fire Pit Tent Tree stumps, logs Grassy and Dirt Terrain	Apocalyptic Debris	Scrub Dead Trees Fast Growing Plans [bamboo] Rusted Junk Scattered Debris Grassy and Low Foliage Dirt and uprooted terrain
Urban Decoration	Potted Plants Fenced Gardens Green Rooms Sidewalk Trees Rooftop Gardens Dried Dirt or Mulch Terrain	Desert Mirages	Small Occasional Pond Cacti and Desert Plants Occasional Shrubbery Rocks Palm Trees Sandy or Dirt Terrain