Plantacular 🌱

Stop killing your real houseplants - practice with a virtual one first.

A realistic houseplant simulator that teaches you authentic plant care while you code. Your typing provides sunlight through photosynthesis, and you'll learn real watering schedules, soil moisture management, and the consequences of overwatering.

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✨ Features

🌿 Realistic Plant Care

• 3 Plant Species: Cactus, Pothos, Fern, and Fiddle Leaf Fig (coming soon!)
• Authentic Schedules: Each species has realistic watering needs (every 5-21 days)
• Soil Moisture System: Track moisture from bone dry to saturated
• Overwatering Consequences: Yellow tips → root rot → death (just like real life!)
• Growth Timeline: Plants take weeks to months to reach maturity

☀️ Typing = Photosynthesis

• Your active coding time generates "light hours" for your plant
• Need 6-8 hours of light per day for optimal growth
• Plants grow slowly and realistically - patience is rewarded

🎮 Progression & Customization

• 10 Achievements to unlock
• 6 Unlockable Pots: From classic terra cotta to exotic designs
• 6 Unlockable Backgrounds: Sunny window, rainy day, night sky, and more
• 100+ Creative Names: Auto-generated plant names from silly to sophisticated
• Memorial Garden: Honor your fallen plant friends

📚 Educational

• Learn real plant care principles
• Species-specific care guides
• Understand overwatering vs underwatering
• Apply knowledge to your real houseplants

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🚀 Getting Started

1. Install Plantacular from the VS Code marketplace
2. Open Command Palette (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+P)
3. Run: Plantacular: Open
4. Complete the interactive tutorial with Quicksprout
5. Choose your permanent companion plant
6. Water regularly, code daily, watch it grow!

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🎯 Commands

• Plantacular: Open - Open your plant panel
• Plantacular: Care Guide - View species-specific care instructions
• Plantacular: Memorial Garden - Remember your lost plants
• Plantacular: Customize - Change pots and backgrounds

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🌵 Plant Species

Cactus (Easy)

• Watering: Every 14-21 days
• Personality: Chill desert buddy - forgets you exist for weeks
• Perfect for: Forgetful developers, inconsistent schedules

Pothos (Moderate)

• Watering: Every 10-14 days
• Personality: Classic low-maintenance friend
• Perfect for: Most developers, stable schedules

Fern (Active)

• Watering: Every 5-7 days
• Personality: Thrives with consistent attention
• Perfect for: Active developers who check in daily

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💀 Death is Real

Your plants can die from:

• Overwatering (root rot progression with visual warnings)
• Neglect (soil becomes bone dry for too long)
• Poor care conditions (insufficient light over time)

Death is permanent. Learn from your mistakes, honor them in the memorial garden, and try again with a new plant.

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🎨 Customization

Unlock pots and backgrounds by:

• Completing achievements
• Reaching plant maturity
• Maintaining care streaks
• Exploring all species

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🔮 There's More...

Some say there's a secret endgame for dedicated gardeners who master all species and unlock every achievement. But that's just a rumor... right?

"You've mastered life. Now master eternity."

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⚙️ Settings

• plantacular.notifyOnWilting - Get gentle reminders when plant needs water
• plantacular.notifyOnEvolution - Celebrate growth milestones
• plantacular.compactMode - Minimize the plant panel
• plantacular.showGrowthAnimations - Toggle visual effects

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🐛 Known Issues

• Plants don't sync across multiple VS Code windows (feature, not bug - one plant per workspace)
• Time travel breaks plants (don't change your system clock)

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📝 Roadmap

V1.3: Enhanced endgame features (for those who've discovered it...)
V1.4: Additional plant species
V1.5: Team mode - share a plant with your dev team
V2.0: Seasonal events and rare species

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🤝 Contributing

Found a bug? Have a feature request? Open an issue on GitHub!

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📜 License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details

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💚 Support

If Plantacular helped you learn plant care (or entertained you during builds), consider:

• ⭐ Starring the repo
• 📢 Sharing with fellow developers
• 🌱 Actually watering your real plants (plspls)

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Built with 💚 by staticoverdub w some help from my buddy claude

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now."

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Screenshots

Quicksprout Tutorial plant :)

Plant selection... more coming soon!

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Start your plant journey today! 🌱

🧑🏼‍💻 One more note

This project is a low risk experiment in using claude code. Things are probably wrong. More things are probably imperfect or imprecise.

But it works!

Happy planting, C