5 Gardening Games That Prove You Don't Need a Yard to Have a Green Thumb

Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator is probably the most literal pick for this list. You play as a gardener tasked with reviving a local community garden that has been completely run-down. You restore its beauty plot by plot, planting real-life bushes, flowers, and trees. They all require regular watering and care, and you do that by also buying new equipment for the garden to improve it. But the goal, really, is to have a cozy online garden you deem beautiful.

It's a perfect pick for people who always wanted to garden but need a low-stakes digital version of the hobby.

This one's a bit of an opposition to Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator mentioned above. If there you fix a run-down garden to its former glory, on Cloud Gardens you build run-down, abandoned wasteland dioramas to have them overgrown by plants. It's absolutely zen, both in gameplay, the soft visuals, and the brain-melting soundtrack that accompanies it in the background (I listen to it while I write these lines, so serene). It's less “gardening simulator” and more “meditative digital bonsai”.

Cloud Gardens is a critical darling, harvesting positive reviews from its small and dedicated fanbase. Great for people who like the aesthetic of gardening more than the labor and toil.

Essentially a tree-planting game with a strong digital gardening vibe, and it comes with a magnificent real-world effect. Every copy sold (less than 4$) funds a real tree personally planted by Henry Driver, the game's developer, in his local community. I bought myself a copy on this pitch alone, before even realising how beautiful and cozy this game makes me feel.

Treeplanter: Plant Real Trees is a meditative diorama-builder where you build beautiful little scenes at your own pace, plant real-life trees, and watch the space bloom. The flora and surroundings change with the seasons, and with day and night. Wildlife will move in depending on what trees you pick, and watching all these wild animals participating in the ecosystem is wholesome. It's less of a simulator in the traditional sense, and more of a lovely personal grove builder, with relaxing and naturey vibes.

Grow: Song of the Evertree is a fantasy gardening game where you plant “World Seeds” on the branches of a huge magical tree, and watch the biomes you create bloom when you tend and care for them. The whimsical flora and fauna aren't the only elements of the game, though. It involves some nice adventure and village-builder elements that remind me of Stardew Valley, without its crunch farming sim mechanics - there are no crops to harvest for profit or breaking work tools, the focus here is about nurturing nature and clearing corruption.

The gameplay has many routine gardening tasks, like pulling weeds, clearing debris, planting, watering, and even singing to flora. So you really feel like a gardener here.

An incredibly charming gardening puzzle game. You play a retired botanist who inhabits Botany Manor, a stately home in 19th-century England, where you need to piece together clues you find while exploring to discover how to help all plants bloom to the best of their ability. And you actually do it. There are many gardening tasks on the to-do list, but also a lot of hints on how to do it right. It really teaches some real botanical logic while still feeling like a cozy mystery.

Botany Manor's overwhelmingly positive reviews speak for themselves as a game recommendation, and it truly fits gardening hobbyists who have only ever held shovels and not a mouse and a keyboard in their lives.