Plants Keep Mounding - WTF?

I have looked for answers but it just seems to be a common Sims 4 game glitch. Why do my plants keep dying, or why won't my plants grow?  Sometimes this happens every 24 hours (Sims Time) and other times, after about a week of plants working/living then suddenly, they revert back to mounds. Also, I note that some plants don't revert right away, but the number of activities that can be performed on the plant drops down to four; Tend, Fertilize, Talk, and Uproot. I can tell when the plants are "normal" by the amount of options, when my Sims has a level 10 gardening skill. The only way I can get the plants to work/grow produce again, so that I can harvest them the next day, is to go into build mode, put the plant in the building inventory then pull it back out and place it back onto the lot. The plant will normally become viable again. But when the game keeps doing this every 24 Sim Hours, it gets a bit crazy making. Seems like it is worse after a game update. The examples below happened right after my Sim harvested the plants right at 7:00 am Sims Time. Holidays and Season changes also seem to have an impact on this happening.  

Anyways, and regardless, the only solution seems to be to take each plant that is only showing four activity options, and put it into the building inventory section, then reposition them onto the lot before the next day's harvesting. 

After the inventory process, the plant or mound should then show six, seven or more options that it is "viable" again or that it will bear fruit again the next day. 

Sims 4 Gardening Skills Whim - Revive a Dead Plant

 Recently encountered this whim that was frustrating as all get out! 

Revive a Dead Plant. 

It's Alive! It's AAALIVE!

Click on Plant and Select Revive Plant. 

Sims can unlock this interaction by increasing their gardening skill and collecting twigs. Twigs can be gathered through shaping Bonsai or harvesting plants.

My Sim has level 10 Gardening skills, and has the Freelance Botanist Aspiration. Um.... No, twigs cannot be gathered while shaping a Bonsai, nor after shaping the Bonsai. There are no twigs that can be gathered after harvesting plants. This may be a whim from an older Sims version.  I remember that with Sims 3 we could revive dead plants because I used to revive the Death Flower plant so that I could harvest one more extra flower before the plant went kapoot.

Just to test this one out, I intentionally killed a perfect plant by taking too many cuttings from the plant. The only options for the dead plant were to dispose of it, or to hire a professional gardener.  I changed the qualities of the lot for better gardening and went through all the Sims moodlets that were positive.  I tried Inspired, Confident, Focused, Happy, Flirty, and Energized.  I did not try Playful or Angry, with the assumption that those would not be helpful, but I might try them at another time, and report back later. I haven't had a Death Flower in a really long time, so I will try obtaining a Death Flower to see if having one of them in my inventory gives me revival power. 

Update.  My Sims tried using the Green Thumb reward via Aspirations and that didn't help with reviving a dead plant.  The dead plant is still in the mound now, with a stem sticking up out of the ground. My Sim can "talk" to the stem, and it can do a few other activities to the stem, like uproot, etc., but still the plant is essentially dead. Having a Death Flower does not help revive the plant. 

Sims 4 Cottage Living and How to Raise Chickens

I have to say that I am really enjoying the Cottage Living expansion. The animals are fun and the activities involving them are entertaining. I started with chickens and it took me quite a while to figure out how to get them to become Golden and Evil. Both breeds are basically, created the same way, but the problem involves getting the Golden Treat and the Midnight Treat for the first time. Until you get the treat, you have no way of feeding it to your chicken, and as such, have no recipe to create the treat. I finally figured out several ways to get these treats. Make certain to grow extra CowBerries to use for making the treat.

The garden shop in Finchwick Village sells many treats, but the most rare are the Golden and Midnight Treats.  The only time you might be able to buy them from the garden shop are on Saturday, during the Fair event. However, there is only a small window of opportunity, because the shop stops selling items at 7:00 pm and the Fair doesn't start until 3:30 pm. Getting lucky to get there at the right time, and finding either of these treats is the starting point.  

Another way to get either of these treats is by befriending the wild rabbits or the flock of wild birds in  The Bramblewood or Old New Henford sections in the Henford-on-Bagley World. Start early in the day and be prepared to spend some time there. Bring a few gifts, like eggs, produce, flowers, canned foods, drinks, etc. to befriend the wild animals, along with talking, watching, and listening to them. Once you have befriended some of the wild rabbits or birds, you can purchase a rabbit and/or bird stump to put onto your Sims' home lot, so that you can continue to interact with them on a daily basis to the point that they start giving you daily gifts of rare and unusual items. In time, you will even be able to get the animals to help with gardening chores.  

The flock of birds stump will give you one gifting option per day, while the rabbit stump will have three or more rabbits that you can interact with each day and more opportunities to receive rare gifts. The rabbits do age out over time, and you need to rebuild relationships with the new young rabbits that move in.

Once you obtain the Golden or Midnight Treat, I recommend that you purchase a new hen (not rooster) and feed the treat to that hen. Golden Treat will create a Golden Hen, while the Midnight Treat will create an Evil Hen, with flames for eyes. As soon as the hen changes, you should initiate the process of making friends with the hen so that it is Happy or Very Happy every day, and will lay Golden Eggs (from the Golden Hen) or Obsidian (Black) Eggs (from the Evil Hen).  Roosters, of course, don't lay eggs, and, well, you will need these eggs in order to create a supply of treats that you can use for other things. Another very useful treat is the "Friendly Treat" that you can use to feed your special hens to improve your Sims' relationship in order to keep the hens in the happy and very happy levels. You don't treat or interact with the Evil Chicken any differently than the other chickens when trying to improve the relationship to the Sims. Mostly what I do is have my Sims talk to their chickens at least once per day using the interaction options. I don't worry about trying to maximize the relationship at first, as the daily talking and feeding Friendly Treats will do the job just fine.  I don't bother with the hugging and petting relationship options, as sometimes the birds will peck at the Sim, causing an anxiety fear. Talking and Joking never cause that fear. 

So, that's how to create a Golden Chicken and also how to create an Evil Chicken in Cottage Living. Golden Chickens will age out after about three weeks of old age, but the Evil Chicken stays young for a very long time. Having these chickens also provides specific perks. I only keep one Golden and one Evil hen along with the rest of the henss in my Sims' Coop at various stages of life since they need to be replaced every few weeks. 

I have my Sims trade their hens before the Grim Reaper shows up, and then purchase a new hen at that time to keep the coop stocked with eggs of all kinds by using the other treats. Happy and Very Happy hens of the white, brown and black breeds, will lay blue, orange, or green eggs without treats.  Special treats are needed for the other colors, like rainbow and chocolate eggs. The spicy treats will cause a hen to lay black eggs, just like the Evil hen's eggs

PS - I don't bother hatching or purchasing chicks. They don't do much and age out faster than simply purchasing a young adult hen. Almost all the chicks my Sims hatched in the coop were rooster chicks, and a few aged out and died before even becoming young adults meaning that they only ate food and took up space until they died of old age as a chick.