Look who's got a Shiny New Badge!

Hey everyone!

I'm very pleased to announce that the view I have been waiting to see in my garden has finally arrived....

This is the harvest I have been waiting for.... I stopped re-planting a couple of days ago when I realised I had enough plants to complete my challenge to beat Morgrim to level 20 gardener. Since then it has just the waiting game to get everything to elder at the same time.

I will write a post about my seed choice soon as there are lots of little things I have found along the way that deserve their own post. But what I can tell you is that I started this challenge with a lot of research. I had just re-planted my whole garden with my usual mix of King Parsley, Couch Potatoes and Evil Magma Peas. My research told me that these plants were not going to be my friend in a challenge of this nature. But as I had just planted them, I had time to figure out what I was going to do. I knew Morgrim had 145 energy, while I had 120. I also knew that Morgrim was well into level 17 whereas I had just levelled to 16. I was always going to be against it, I needed a clear strategy to put in place quick.


And I found it. The Key Lime. From the forums on Wizard101.com I knew that Wizards had adopted the strategy before. It is a low level plant that is very easy to look after, and many, many low level Wizards have used it. There wasn't anything on the high level Wizards using it - it wasn't a decision I took lightly. But at the end of the day I couldn't find any reason not to use this seed, and I couldn't find any other plant that cycles quite as fast!

Now, unlike Morgrim I did not chose to enter this challenge without the use of crowns. I knew that I would need Elixirs at some point (not knowing the secrets of Grub Guardian that Morgrim had adopted)... and of course the Key Lime seeds are a Crown purchase I had one in my bank, and I decided to buy 6 of them - total outlay on seed purchase was : 4,500. Now I could have just bought 1, but I needed to hit the ground running, so planting 7 that first harvest was my choice.

While waiting for my garden to go to elder, I had chores to attend to. Number 1 was to get the likes in place. Now, oddly, KL only have 5 likes... they are:

• Tropical Garden Gnome
• Pixie
• Red Barn Farm 
• Honey Sickle
• Water-Mole Statue

I had to go buy a couple of Honey Sickle seeds, plants them and then let them die. The Water Mole statues I had at another house, so I just brought them over. The other likes were already in place. I was ready to go as soon as my EMPs went to elder - they were the fastest plants I had at that stage. So I got planting. KL are a plant that continues to give, each harvest has a chance of a KL seed with one definite seed at elder. I found that generally I would get a third back each time I harvested. It didn't take long for my bank to start filling up. The CPs went to elder next, so I then had to plough those large plots and replace them with medium plots. These are stacked gardens, so that takes a bit of time when you have full plots surrounding them!

It wasn't long before my 250 garden limit was reached. I picked up everything in the garden that did not relate to these seeds. All the other 'likes', any empty plots - I cleared the land. Eventually the KPs went to elder and that's when the challenge went into over-drive. The replanting and ploughing etc cost me more energy than I had. Until I had both sides established I found myself buying those Energy Elixirs. My 120 energy just wasn't enough. However, as soon as those gardens were established that quickly changed. I have been hard pressed to use more than 60 energy daily. And I have been harvesting multiple times a day. 

I had been asking Morgrim how he was going on his levels.... whilst never mentioning mine. I had to see if my strategy was working. I was clear early on that it was indeed the best strategy. I overtook him some time back, but never let on. When I hit level 19 last week, I knew that I only needed a few more days to win. 

I calculated how many plants I needed to harvest at elder to win and stopped replanting when I knew I had enough there. Then I continued to harvest until the plants went to elder. My plants have not been in sync. They all harvest at different times and at different stages. Each harvest became selective. I didn't want to harvest any of those elder plants. That would spoil the video I wanted to take to show my victory!

And today is the day..... and here is that golden moment... captured forever in Wizard101 history - the day I beat Morgrim to level 20 - Verdant Gardener. Enjoy!

I just want to say a big thanks to Morgrim for this challenge. It has been executed in the spirit intended and Morgrim has been ever the gentleman by choosing the no crown strategy - to give me a chance! It has been fun to research and fun to put into place. It has been fun.... and that is what this game is all about.

And I won... woo hoo!

Until Next Time,

Tabitha