Garden with Insight v1.0 Help: Tutorial

This tutorial has two phases. In the first phase (Basic Tasks), you will go through a gardening year and learn basic gardening tasks. You will plant in the spring, harvest fresh vegetables in the summer, then turn the garden over and prepare it for the next year. (These dates are for a northern-hemisphere temperate garden.) In the second phase (Deeper In), you will explore the simulation more deeply with graphs. The second phase of the tutorial refers to some things you learn in the first phase, so we recommend you do (or skim) the items in order.

Before you start

This tutorial assumes three things:

1. You have already installed the Garden with Insight program and have not changed the tutorial garden file (tutorial.gdn). If you find major discrepancies between the tutorial description and the tutorial file, look for the file in your installation copy and recopy it from there. If you want to save the tutorial file after going through the tutorial, choose Save as from the File menu to save the file with a different name so the original tutorial file will be unchanged.
2. You have basic familiarity with the mouse and with window-based interface systems. A brief summary is made in the Common interface elements you should know section. If you need more help using windows, menus, files, and dialogs, see your system manuals for help.
3. You have only a basic knowledge of gardening. Some terms are defined in the glossary. If you do not understand a concept described here, look in almost any garden book -- there are many excellent explanations of gardening concepts. Some of our favorite gardening books are listed in the Reference section.

Conventions in the tutorial

Statements that describe what to do if things go wrong (if you don't see what the tutorial says you should see) are in [square brackets]. The little progress bar at the top of each tutorial screen shows you how far you have gone through the tutorial. Pictures for each tutorial screen are at the bottom so they don't disturb your reading. Scroll down to see them if you want to compare with what you have on the screen.

Phase I: Basic Tasks

Start the program and open a garden
Try out the tools
Plant some corn seeds
Try the undo/redo system
Plant some tomato seedlings
Water the soil
Set watering options
Use the growcorder and look at the browser
Move the simulation ahead
Harvest some corn
Drag organic matter blobs around
Change the tomato plant
Harvest some tomatoes

Phase II: Deeper In

Move ahead to fall
Harvest the whole tomato and corn plants
Prepare another soil patch
Enrich and mix the soil
Mulch the soil for winter
Plant a cover crop
Graph weather variables