Zen Garden (PvZ)



The Zen Garden is an alternative, non-competitive environment obtained by completing the Adventure Mode level 5-4 for the first time.

Overview
The objective is to acquire Plants, either by random drops in any of the other game environments, or by purchasing them from Crazy Dave; then caring for them by watering them and meeting their other needs until they are fully grown and happy, at which time they will begin dropping coins every 30-60 seconds or so for up to a full calendar day (the timer resets at midnight by your computer's clock).

Populating the Zen Garden
There are 32 available spaces for Zen Garden plants in the main Zen Garden, and 8 slots in each of the other two gardens which can be purchased from Crazy Dave for $30,000 each: the Mushroom Zen Garden (for plants that sleep during the day) and the Aquarium Zen Garden, for aquatic plants. Zen Garden plants can be obtained by random drops from killing zombies, or up to three Zen Garden Marigolds can be purchased per real calendar day from Crazy Dave's Twiddydinkies.

Dropped Zen Garden plants include marigolds and any non-upgraded Zen Garden plant (meaning that you will never get a Gloom-shroom or Gatling Pea, for example). Marigolds, when fully grown, can be sold for $3,000. Other day plants, including Grave Busters and Planterns, can be sold for $8,000 when fully-grown. Mushrooms and aquatic plants can be sold for $10,000 when fully grown.

Keeping the Plants Happy
Mushrooms and aquatic plants will not mature past the first stage or allow themselves to be happy unless they are in their respective environments, and aquatic plants never need to be watered once they have grown past seedling stage. Once fully grown and happy, mushrooms and aquatic plants can then be moved to the main Zen Garden where they will remain awake and drop coins at intervals throughout the day. Mushrooms must be moved back to the Mushroom Garden once a day to be watered and made happy again, after which they will remain awake in the main Zen Garden. Other aquatic plants, once fully grown, no longer need to be in the Aquarium Garden to be made happy, and never need to be watered. The main exception to these rules is the Sea-shroom, which never has to be watered because it is an aquatic plant, but can grow and become happy in either the Mushroom Garden or the Aquarium Garden (if it is in the main Zen Garden without being happy, it will be asleep).

Organizing your Zen Garden plants
Plants can be moved around in the main Zen Garden by purchasing a Gardening Glove which costs $1,000, and is re-usable. After purchasing one of the other Zen Gardens, the Wheel Barrow becomes available for $200 and can be used to move plants from one Zen Garden to another. It can be used as a replacement Gardening Glove, if you wish, though it adds an extra step to moving each plant.

Tips in collecting Zen Garden plants of interest
Any plant can be found in the area it was obtained in, the Puzzle Mode levels, the Mini-game It's Raining Seeds, and Survival: Endless. Exceptions to this are the Marigold, which can only be bought from Crazy Dave, and possibly the Flower Pot, which apparently cannot be found as a plant drop (research has not yet concluded). Also, Upgrade Plants and the Imitater cannot be found as plant drops, as they are not obtained in specific areas.

If the player wishes to collect all the plants that can be obtained for the Zen Garden, then it is suggested that they does not buy too many Marigolds, as there will be only four blank spaces in the main Zen Garden for duplicate plants (three if you keep both Marigolds Crazy Dave gives you), the Mushroom Garden will be full, and of course the Aquatic Garden can only hold aquatic plants.

Making Money

 * Main Article: Money Guide

Purchased marigolds start as small flower seedlings, but other dropped plants start as unidentified sprouts. In order to for these plants to begin dropping coins, they must be cared for until they mature. As each plant grows, an icon will appear next to the plant indicating what it needs: water, fertilizer, bug spray or music. When you get the Zen Garden, you begin with a single-shot watering can that can be used over and over again - each use watering a single plant. The Golden Watering Can can be purchased for $10,000 and will water up to four plants in a circular area at a time. Other items purchased at the store include Fertilizer ($750 for 5 bags), the Phonograph ($15,000 for unlimited uses) and Bug Spray ($1,000 for 5 sprays).


 * Each time you initially water a plant that needs water, it will drop a silver coin.
 * After several waterings, a seedling will ask for Fertilizer. Once it has been given Fertilizer, the seedling will then mature into a very small version of the full-grown plant and drop a gold coin.
 * Some time later, the small plant will again become thirsty and require another round of waterings, followed by a request for more fertilizer, at which time it will will grow to a medium-sized plant and drop two gold coins.
 * Later, the plant will need another round of waterings, and ask for more Fertilizer. It will then give you two diamonds (except for Marigolds, which give one).


 * Finally, there will be one last round of waterings followed by another request for bug-spray or the phonograph. If the plant is then provided the correct items asked for, it will glow with a gold aura (signifying that the plant is "happy") and reward the player with a gold coin (three if it's a mushroom or aquatic plant) and then drop coins (silver or gold) and occasionally diamonds for the rest of the day. The plants may cease to drop coins and diamonds if the previous two coins/diamonds they dropped are not picked up. The player can either pick them up manually or purchase Stinky the Snail to do this task.

Automation
The Zen Garden will not produce or collect coins unless the Plants vs. Zombies window is open to the Zen Garden. This means the player may open another window and run other applications while continuing to collect coins from the Zen Garden (the game must not be in full screen, and if the game is minimized, the zen garden won't drop or collect coins). However, timers, like Stinky the Snail's sleep timer, will continue to run. At midnight, by your computer's clock, the timer resets, and your plants will need to be watered or made happy once more.

Stinky the Snail can be purchased from Crazy Dave for $3000. At first, he will appear asleep at the bottom of the Zen Garden, however, if you wake him up by clicking on him, he will begin to (slowly) collect coins dropped by your plants. After a few minutes, however, he will become sleepy and fall asleep at the bottom of the screen again. Stinky does have a secret weakness for Chocolate, however, and if you feed him a piece, he will become extremely hyper and continue to collect coins at a high rate of speed (for a snail) for about an hour.

Chocolate can also be used to increase the rate at which a plant drops coins and allows them to drop more before they stop dropping coins (if they are not picked up).

The Zen Garden can be a relaxing low-pressure click-for-rewards game, or can simply be left running as a musical and visual treat. Additionally, feeding Stinky chocolate will allow you to continue collecting coins, even when you are not at the computer, making the Zen Garden a popular way to earn money.

Trivia

 * The Zen Garden has no Zombies
 * The Zen Garden is not available on the iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad version