Garden Joy Reviews

Don’t get me wrong, I do like this game, BUT, when certain categories have no coin options, you are forced to pay in diamonds which are rather expensive when you consider every item is almost 2000 diamonds. Yeah you can watch ads but you get 30 diamonds per ad, lol, what a joke. You can buy diamonds, but believe me they go fast. I’ve played the game 2 months and spent well over a hundred dollars. Plus in order to make diamonds your design needs 5 stars. That’s a joke too, as people vote for the ugliest designs. And you only get a small amount of diamonds. Not enough to buy 1 item.
My suggestion is to have coin options in ALL CATEGORIES. And don’t just give us the ugly stuff, like that horrific lawn dog.
They really need to make some changes if they want 5 stars from me.
But there are other problems too. Prizes that don’t show up. People who never help but ask you to join. Voting on designs that already have 5 stars. IMO designs that have reached 5 stars should be removed from voting to give others a chance, but it goes to 5 stars and if people keep voting on it, it becomes a top design. Which means you should actually be rewarded more than 250 diamonds!
Considering what everything cost they should be giving you twice as many diamonds for your cash than what they are giving you now. Like I said, it’s a MONEY PIT.

I am on Social Security and I can’t afford to be buying extra diamonds all the time. I have broke down and bought a few but it is just not affordable. I watch the video adds to get free diamonds but you only get 35 diamonds to watch each video. Also I was able to watch the ads in the morning until it said I had reached my limit but now it shows no videos available most of the day. I am only able to access them around noon or a little after. I love the game and really enjoying it but my designs could be so much better with more diamonds. Also it would be nice if there was not a limit on how many un-purchaced items you can view. Please make some changes so everyone can enjoy your game without having to purchase so much.

Update: No changes have been made as to what everyone wants. I really enjoy this game but it is too expensive. I can’t afford to constantly have to pay to play. I buy the monthly pass so that I can get extras and extra diamonds. I don’t believe you should be so money hungry. I purchased a $1.99 item and was charged over $3 and I purchased $9.99 diamonds and was charged over $20. WHY?

FINAL UPDATE: I am done with GardenJoy! It’s not as much fun anymore because I cannot afford it any more. It is nothing but a bank account drainer just to be able to do a nice design. The company DOES NOT LISTEN to our requests and don’t make changes so everyone can enjoy. Hope everyone that can afford it enjoys it but I can no longer do it.

Overall this is relaxing and I like it but they could use to add some things to it to make it work better. I was doing a design and had added the wishing well in one of the spots and then tapped on another and it added a wishing well to that spot too and I didn’t want one in the other spot so when i went back to tap it again to remove it like you do on all the others it would not remove it, it was removing all the other things around it so i went to where the other one was and tapped on it and it would not remove either just the other plants or things around it would be removed frustrating to want to change one or two of the items or remove it and cant. They should really have a clear icon for people to be able to clear it all out and restart the process again when they are unable to tap the icon to remove it. So i had to submit my design with two wishing wells in it that looked goofy and now gonna not get a good score because the game would not work it was like that item was froze, even tried shutting off my phone and restarted it to see if that would work and nothing. Then there is not even a way to report issues with the game or app without exiting the game or app. Please fix. Too slow at adding to the game im getting bored with it already been at the end of all the levels for months now, they can add new designs but they cant add new levels. Gonna give it another month then i will just find another garden design game to play and uninstall this one.

I actually really like the game. It’s very calming and unexpectedly engrossing. The details in the art are amazing- the lighting in a scene will actually change depending on what you place in it. The more you play, the more items you can win and the more fun you have. The downside to the game is that many of the areas to decorate are absurdly generic. There is literally just a backyard and a fence that could be anywhere in the world, instead of Tunisia. But I just avoid the very generic ones, so that’s not too bad since I wouldn’t have enough resources to decorate them all, anyways. What’s really bugging me now is this friendship thing they’re pushing when there is NO WAY in the game to add friends, other than to invite people you know in real life to join the game. So I have a mostly dead friend list that’s left over from when they had clubs, with no way to add anyone new. I have all these friend gifts, and no one to give them to. So if that friend thing is what’s getting you to join the game, think again. Also, not many things in the game match. It is almost impossible to find a sofa and chair that match, whether in color, style, design or size. It can be very frustrating. The tables are usually waaaay too large for the size of the chairs, but then some of the chairs are so tiny it’s like they’re for children. Hopefully the game designers will see this, since I really do like the concept and look of the game, but would like to see it done better.

I really like this game but they CHEAT YOU!!!
So you can get FREE “diamonds” if you watch sponsored ads. You click on the “watch a video” button in the free section of the premium store and afterwards you receive 30 diamonds for each watched video UP TO 20 videos which is 600 “diamonds”. You can also PAY… COLD HARD CASH to accumulate diamonds at various prices. I opt for the “FREE” diamonds as I am retired and watch my spending. Also I just think it is ridiculous to pay for a “game” with no TANGIBLE qualities. Well I started watching my “banked diamonds” (totals) to see if they were adding up correctly; they are NOT. In addition to that, the “free diamond” section will FREEZE YOU OUT SO YOU CANNOT GO BACK IN AND CONTINUE TO GET YOU DIAMONDS if you need to close GardenJoy or if it kicks you out somehow. Yesterday it kicked me out and I still had 5 MORE ADS TO LOOK AT to reach my 20 quota. Today it was 1 and it KEEPS happening. I like this game and I know there are others but this one’s graphics are really nice (for me; somewhat realistic)
I have complained to them but of course it still happens. I THINK they want you to
SPEND YOUR MONEY and not go for the FREE DIAMONDS!!!! THIS IS SO SAD. Why offer “FREE” diamonds if they will not give them as GardenJoy states. This would be “breach” I would think.
SMH 🤦🏽‍♀️ 🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️

There’s a couple things I would change. Too many items are diamonds only. I understand some, but not all. I can never get a carpet, because they are diamonds only. Ridiculous! Fountains - diamonds only. We also need a A chat for our friends.
There needs to be more gardening community. 250 diamonds for a 5 star look is ridiculous!!!! Do you guys understand yet that in this game there is Nothing you can buy for 250 diamonds!!!! Give us a couch a chair or more dismonds.
The game in the last month has even decreased our cash by making us continually buy obscure plants or items.
I play several other big home games without these issues. Home design, redecor etc. please try playing these games and see what you guys are doing wrong. The reason I started playing this was for the beauty - the cute lil butterflies which I can never purchase because of lack of diamonds. Way too many items require diamonds!!!!!! I just keep thinking about quitting. Even the gardens seem to be the same old gardens all the time. Do some close ups or something.. like a garden balcony. So many ideas….

Ever wonder why a mismatched or unattractive garden, devoid of rugs, fountains, etc can score higher than yours. I actually lost sleep over the fact that I could not figure out what I was doing wrong! Well, Garden Joy uses the $$$ value of your garden to decide who you go up against… so if you use fountains, rugs, bigger trees, nicer tiles, etc… your garden will go against one that cost about the same amount… meaning, a nicer garden, made by someone with more experience. If your garden is void of costly items, it stands a better chance of scoring higher because it gets voted against a skimpier garden. Basically, garden joy gives the advantage to those who refuse to spend any money on their app and they punish people who truly believe it’s a game worth investing in. Don’t know why they are so unfair… or why their process is not random… maybe we should all stop spending money on their app… so they learn to appreciate their paying customers. When you think about it… it’s sort of like being in an abusive relationship… the more you give, the more they take, and the less they care about how they make you feel. IDK… seems like a terrible way to run a company. lol

I would give this 5 star because it’s a lot of fun to play. To be truthful I have several legitimate reasons I will not be continuing.
First off, my 1st review was deleted. (Red Flag).
2nd after reading several of the reviews of the game glitching or freezing along with my own experiences of the game freezing, nothing seems to be taken care of. It’s nice you want to give seeds & furniture or a plant but how about more effort to be placed on fixing a lot of the bugs in the game. Enough money has been made to have that happen.
I too am heavily confused & frustrated with the rating of the challenges. There are some not all that have low ratings in votes but win 5 stars. Many of those don’t have all the things that are asked to be put into the challenges such as colors, or half the items are missing yet they win the challenge, so I’m confused and so are afew other people. I have also noticed some of my diamonds end up not appearing that I had earned, so I’m not to happy. With all the problems I have experienced it’s best to delete the game and do something less addictive.

I would have loved to give this game a 5, because it is worth a 5. It’s a pretty game, a teaching game about plants and flowers, a game where competition isn’t the main focus, and a very relaxing game. If it’s all that why would I only give it a 3?
Well, let me tell you……at the end of each level you are given a lot of decorating gifts and flowers. Gifts are a lot of fun, right? Again, why? I played this game to Level 29. It took me a few months of daily play to get that far. When I reached Level 29 I got a message telling me that the Devs were working on making new levels. That was 2-3 weeks ago and it still hasn’t happened. They have added many new things that can be bought. There used to be a way to earn trees but that changed to earning surprises. Unfortunately my surprises were mostly the same and I now have to use coins or diamonds to buy trees. Now you can play on and on and no longer the Level Up gifts. They are now making many gardens where you need 2 trees, 2 benches, 2 decor items, 2 hanging items, etc. This uses up quite a bit of what you have on hand and sort of forces you into actually buying items in order to continue.
I am going to play until the end of this month to see if these things improve, if not I’m going to delete the game.

This games is lots of fun but only if you’re willing to shell out $5 every few days for more diamonds. Technically you don’t have to spend a cent but there are requirements for each project and often you need to buy item to meet the requirements. Not every option takes the coins that you receive daily and most the items that need to be bought with diamonds cost more than what you get daily. So, if you want to enter that challenge you need to buy more diamonds. $4.99 gets you 16,000 diamonds but each item you buy costs on average 2,500. It goes quickly. Once you buy an item you don’t have it from that point on, you only get to use it 4 or 5 times and then it goes away and you have to buy it again. Then there are bundles that give you items, those cost money. And the challenges, those cost money. It’s one of those games that nickel and dime you until you realize that you’ve spent $35 that month.

I realize the point of making these games is to make money but when it’s too pricey people stop playing because it adds up too much. They would do better to give the items for 10 uses. And give more free diamonds. This way people don’t stop playing to save money. Also, make every category have coin purchase options, for example, none of the centerpieces can be purchased with coin, only diamonds. So again, either don’t use or spend money.

I LOVE this game. It is sooo beautiful and relaxing. I love all the pretty plants and making things pretty. Everything about it is perfect, except one thing: there’s only one level (one garden) every four hours or so. Sometimes more! I wish there was a key system like in “design home” ( which is essentially the same but for indoors and much less pretty) where you earn keys as you vote on other’s creations and once you get so many you can pick and choose from a seemingly endless list of options. It keeps me more engaged, like I can really sit and play for a while while watching shows. It’s so much more fun that way. This feels like I’m constantly chasing the game which ends up giving me more anxiety than relaxation and it’s really truly taking away from the beauty that is this game. Please please please release more designs more often. I would even be buying more if I had more to play because I would be running out of resources! I want to play so much that I have no resources left . I want to binge 😆 I want to spend my evenings making beautiful gardens and watching comfort tv shows. But you’re really holding me back here. I hope someone actually reads this because this would make my days sooo much better! I love this game. It’s perfect. I just need more of it!

The game is fun. Has a lot of potential but definitely needs to be tweaked a bit. No need to spend money as it does have plenty different ways to get rewards however, if you’re low on items or simply have to have what everyone else does then plenty of different packets to choose from. Prices are high and most items require diamonds. That’s the first thing they need to adjust. Either lower the price or make every tab have equal amount of coin and diamond options. There are challenges which require partnering up but it can get tricky. Sometimes you have to do it all and for that, might as well have an option where we can partner up or do it solo. Finally, it would be nice to be able to inbox friends. I would say a world chat would be nice but seeing all the complaints on Facebook kinda distracted me away from that idea. But being able to message friends in game would be great. Also, voting..perhaps make it so that once a player gets a 5 star they’re removed from the voting pool. Because indeed that voting system is not very fair. So as you see it’s all little tweaks that would make it better but nothing that makes it non fun. I thank you for the many perks you have for us to get prizes and items needed to design at no additional cost as well as all the options available in case we choose to purchase.

This game is great fun until you run out of diamonds. Optional items tend to cost diamonds. They aren’t required to submit your designs. Yet, you will get voted down by lacking these optional items.

At first, you are given tens of thousands of coins and diamonds. You level up more quickly as well. Leveling up gives you items, including some of the optional items. But as you play on, spending down your diamonds, you level up less quickly. You can watch adds to collect 30 diamonds, and you get over a thousand each day from the Giving Tree. Optional items cost more than 1000 diamonds except the butterflies. Voting wins you 250 coins per vote. It’s easier to keep your coin total high enough.

Thus we come to the in-app purchases. Like Design Home which I played, you eventually buy a few diamonds or packaged items for $1.99 or $2.99, thinking the game gives me that amount of fun. But it stays this way from here on, struggling to get the optional items that cost diamonds. I’ll reach the point where I delete the game because the Joy is gone from the Garden. I won’t be spending money on this game. I’ve learned that lesson.

This game is all about landscape designs. The daily challenges have no design requirements but the others do, which focuses the design colors or theme. You get feedback on submitted designs because the way to earn coins is to vote on a series of designs.
All the plants have an info button & The Spruce provides the info. You don’t have to use it but this was my biggest draw as I wanted a fun way to identify landscape plants that I liked IRL.
It is free & there is a way to earn both coins & gems but it’s hard to get perfect 5.0 score without spending a little money. They do put the designs of people with a similar experience level together and there is a way to vote for both designs if one isn’t significantly better, so that is totally fair.
I would rate this game 5 stars if club members could talk to each other & if I could see what club mates used of my inventory like I can see who used my whatever. Just curious, using inventory in this way doesn’t actually use up anything and this is in fact a wonderful feature.

I have only started playing this game a few days ago, but I have only ever found one game that you can design without having to play a Side game for money, and/or mandatory ads. Or they’re cartoon games, that only allow you three options for each piece of furniture you place, Ugh, those are the worst.. I like this game because you get to design outdoor areas to your liking without all of the side junk getting in the way, they also have realistic features like butterflies flying around your yard; and realistic features such as flowing waterfalls, fire features etc., although they don’t have many options yet, due to the fact that they’re new, but I’m sure they will get more options soon. (my favorite design game started out with just a few designers, and now I can scroll through a massive list of designers to choose from, that would be on Design home, my all-time favorite game that I have been playing for around six or seven years now. I Look forward to having GardenJoy that long as well. Hope this helps. Happy decorating. ;-)

My friend turned me onto this game, and I really like it. Designing the gardens are fun and relaxing. I feel like the game could use more coin options for decorations. I don’t like that all of the rugs, ground decor, and table decor are only available for purchase with gems. It becomes more challenging to obtain the necessary items to complete designs when you have to save up coins and gems over a couple of days. Sometimes I run out of gardens to design and have to wait hours for new ones to become available, like today. I don’t like the design requirements of one and I don’t celebrate pride so I was disappointed that it was the bonus garden for today. Hopefully, some new choices will be released soon. Happy gardening!

Update: Here we are later down the road and my complaints are just about the same. No coin options for decor. Cannot unfriend people who aren’t participating. To be able to send all of my friends gifts I need more gardens to design! Why do I have to wait 4 fricken hours for a new garden to design? That doesn’t make any sense to me. More gardens mean more extras (decor) are needed. Which means more potential for revenue for the game….Ummm isn’t the point of the game to make money? You’re taking a good game and ruining it by not listening to your constant players, which is about to be one less player. It’s no fun to play a game you can’t play, as odd as that sounds….

This is a great app I love it here you get to design plus make friends it’s a wonderful experience and have so much fun doing it the one best part I do have to add I love about it that it takes your stress away while you listen to peaceful music and it’s very therapeutic join today
I DO HAVE ONE VERY GOOD IDEA OR SUGGESTION WHY DONT YOU GO LIVE AND HAVE PLAYERS COMPETE AGAINST EACH OTHER IN THEIR DESIGNS SUCH AS DUELS AND THEN HAVE ANOTHER COMPETITION WITH 10 players and have 1st 2nd 3rd place best design winners we will of course the players judge at a later date and then post the winners just like you do know?? It just adds depth to your game you can have all kinds of interesting sites from around the world people can choose whether they want to go live and compete or not I would suggest not to be able till your at a certain point in the game like after sprout?
LASTLY VERY IMPORTANT THIS ABSOLUTELY DRIVES ME INSANE WHEN YOU HAVE CHALLENGES THAT ARE SO FAR AWAY YOU CAN BARELY SEE THEM I LOVE THE UP CLOSE ONES I FEEL LIKE NOT EVEN DOING THE ONES THAT ARE FAR AWAY ITS A WASTE OF OUR MONEY AND TIME PLEASE STOP HAVING THOSE
ON A GOOD NOTE GREAT LOCATION SITES GOOD JOB MUCH IMPROVED AND I LOVE THE ON GOING ENDLESSLY GAME DESIGNING EXCELLENT UPDATES

I never write reviews, but I needed to come here and give GardenJoy a 5 star rating. I do wish the items you need to buy gems for could be a little cheaper, because I end up spending more than I’d like to, but this game literally puts me in a peaceful mind set and helps me cope with my anxiety. I do wish that we didn’t have to wait 4 hours for more levels, because I’d literally be playing this game ALLL day if I had the time to. I think that the developers can only make GardenJoy better from here. Another suggestion for the developers is to have the monthly pass include more gems because it would encourage more players to spend the money each month, I’d personally rather buy 20$ worth of gems then buy the garden pass because you get so much more out of the gems in this game. But anyways, great game, and like another reviewer said we have to weed out the “freeloaders” in the challenges because it’s really not fair to those of us who are trying. Thanks!

I love this game’s graphics and the reward system. It seems to be pretty fair in doling out prizes and incentives, compared to other games I have played. I rarely get frustrated from lack of choices.
Some suggestions:
1- Would like to receive more points in overall design (before people vote) for appropriately selected plants per the region designing for, and an optional explanation pop up explaining whether that plant will actually do well in that environment or not. It would add to the overall learning experience. Picking plants to compliment design only is fine for relaxation, but having the OPtion to learn more realistic design principals would put GardenJoy over the top!
2- Respectfully asking for more coin purchase options with categories that only offer diamond purchases. It would increase players’ ability to compete in the events.
LOVE the sounds in the game, and you have done a great job with bug fixes!

Fun and brings much joy! 😁 It is an addicting and educational game, and real trees are planted!! I have worked as a floral designer, interior designer and gardener…so great to design all over the world with interesting challenges!! Great descriptions.

However, as I have progressed through the game, it is very difficult keep a good design rating unless you’re buying things or “purchasing coordinated packages for every differing design entry. Of course, I know you need to make money, but I do believe there should be good freebies in every single purchase category. It gets to a point where you can’t even play the game anymore. If you wanna keep people playing the game, then either increase the number of diamonds that you can earn or lower the cost of the 💎💎💎diamond purchases please. There should not be outrageous inflation in a fun game … so the only ones who can earn a five star rating are those with money. ( Too real-life )

Wouldn’t it be great to see what talent could be created if everyone had the same amount of money to spend?