Plain text version of Garden with Insight(TM) 1.0 Tutorial === 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: You have already installed the Garden with Insight(TM) 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. 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. 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. === Start the program and open a garden Tutorial progress: |------------------- [If you are not already running Garden with Insight(TM), check the Quick start section for information on starting the program.] * Look at the menu The Garden with Insight(TM) main window is called the garden window. It has the menu items File, Edit, Run, Options, Window, and Help. * Open a garden file Choose Open from the File menu. In the dialog that says "Save current garden?", click No. Choose the file tutorial.gdn in the directory where Garden with Insight(TM) was installed, then click OK. * Look at the tutorial garden The tutorial garden will appear on the screen. It is a scene of a backyard garden with several raised soil beds. [If the scene you see is blank, choose Show backdrop from the Options menu. If the scene is still blank, either the tutorial file has been changed, or the bitmap file used by the tutorial file is missing. To choose a new backdrop picture, see How to change the backdrop picture.] You can only use one garden at a time in Garden with Insight(TM), so whatever garden might have been open before has been closed. Note that you can't maximize the garden window. You can minimize the window or make it smaller, but you can't make it any larger than the garden backdrop size or garden size inside it. You can change the garden size (and therefore window size) by using a larger backdrop bitmap or by turning off the backdrop and using a larger garden size (see the backdrop options window). A larger garden size will require more memory, though. * Look at the toolbar At the top of the window, under the menu, is a toolbar containing several items. The expand/collapse button collapses the garden window to a small size or expands the garden window to full size. You can try clicking this button now. The date buttons move the simulation ahead one week, month, day or year. Messages will occasionally appear in the area to the right of the date buttons. The first drop-down list box under the date buttons is called the tool box and holds a list of all the tools you can use. The second drop-down list box under the date buttons is called the actions box and holds a list of all the actions you can perform with the tool currently selected in the tool box. The contents of the actions box will change every time you choose a new tool from the tool box. Some tools only have one action. For some tools and actions, one or two additional drop-down list boxes will appear under the date buttons. These are called the value boxes, and they list choices for the current tool action, such as depths or amounts of material. There will probably not be any value boxes showing now. The large area under the toolbar which has a picture of a garden in it is called the garden picture. The bar at the bottom of the garden window is called the harvest panel; it shows the items you have harvested from the garden. It is probably empty now. === Try out the tools Tutorial progress: -|------------------ * Look at the glove and cursor Move the mouse around. Inside the picture on the garden window, you are moving a garden glove with an arrow cursor at the tip of its index finger. The garden glove is your pointer inside the garden picture. The cursor works the same in this program as in most; it shows you where you are pointing on the screen. However, in Garden with Insight(TM) you have two indicators of your position -- the cursor proper () and the garden glove -- and they always move together. In fact, the cursor isn't really necessary when you have the garden glove, but we show the cursor because it is standard and because it can give you some extra information (more on that later). It's important to understand that when we say to click on something in the garden window, we mean: position the tip of the index finger on it and click. * Look at the tools and tool hints Some tools will be lying around in the garden picture. [If you can't see any tools lying around, choose Show tools from the Options menu.] You can see a shovel, pitchfork, hoe, watering can, bag, and seed packet. There is also a meter called a growcorder, a magnifying glass, and a magic wand. If you hold the cursor still over any tool for a short time, a hint (a yellow box) will appear showing the name of the tool (but not if another application is selected). If the Show long hints option is selected (checked) in the Options menu, you will also see a list of the actions each tool can do in its hint. If you can't see a list of actions after the tool's name in the tool hints, choose Show long hints from the Options menu. You can pick up tools in two ways: by picking them up with the garden glove, and by selecting them from the tool box on the toolbar. * Pick up tools using the toolbar First try picking up tools using the toolbar. To do this, move the mouse to the toolbar and click on the tool box (the first drop-down list box), which will drop down to show a list of tools. In the list, click on the name of the tool you want to pick up. The garden glove will change to show that you are holding the tool. The cursor will move to a point on the tool where that tool is used (e.g., the corner of the seed packet or the tip of the shovel). You can hold only one tool at a time. * Pick up tools using the mouse Now try picking up tools using the mouse. First choose glove from the tool box. Then move the glove over to a tool and click on the tool (with the tip of the index finger) using the right mouse button. The glove will change to hold the tool. To put down a tool, right-click again. Try picking up and putting down a few tools this way. You can also shift-click (hold down the Shift key and click with the left mouse button) to pick up or put down a tool. You might wonder why glove is listed in the tool box. The garden glove is a tool in the sense that you can use it to do things in the garden. But the glove is special because you can also use it to pick up other tools, and because you can't put the glove down. You could think of the garden glove as the default tool. * Move tools You can move tools around in the garden without picking them up. To move a tool, click on it with the glove and hold down the mouse button while dragging the mouse. You cannot move a tool while you are holding another tool. * Play the tool sounds If you have a sound card installed, try playing the tool sounds now. Choose Play tool sounds from the Options menu, then try picking up and putting down tools again. === Plant some corn seeds Tutorial progress: --|----------------- * Pick up the seed packet and choose corn The seed packet holds all the seeds, seedlings, bulbs and tubers you can plant in Garden with Insight(TM). You want to plant corn, so you need to choose it from the contents of the seed packet. Pick up the seed packet. The action box on the toolbar (the second drop-down list box) will read plant, and the first value box (the third drop-down list box) will list the possible contents the seed packet can have. Click on the first value box and choose Corn from the list of choices. * Look at the cursor over a soil patch Move the mouse around again. Have you noticed that when you move the cursor over the two soil beds the furthest to the left, the cursor changes to an arrow with a square? That means that each of those areas is a prepared soil patch. In this tutorial, only those two soil patches have been prepared and are available for planting. Later we will prepare a third soil patch for next year. Also notice that if you hold the cursor still for a while over a soil patch, a hint will appear with the number and name of that soil patch (but not if another application is selected). Some other information also appears after the name of the soil patch (if you have the Show long hints option turned on in the Options menu). * Plant some corn seeds Now move the seed packet to the middle soil patch (make sure the corner of the seed packet is inside the soil patch) and click to plant a corn seed. A triangle will appear with its lowest point where you clicked. The triangle is a plant symbol that represents one plant in the garden. [If a plant symbol does not appear, turn on the Draw seeds as symbols option in the Options menu. If you still don't see a plant symbol, you may have missed the patch; try planting again.] Plant three or four more corn seeds here and there, inside either soil patch. * Look at the cursor over the base of a plant Notice now that when you move the garden glove so that the tip of its index finger is at the base of a plant (at the bottom of the triangle), the cursor changes to an arrow with a leaf . If you hold the cursor there for a short time, a hint will appear with the number and name of the plant (but not if another application is selected). It's important to understand how to select a plant by finding its base, because later the plant will begin to look much more complex. === Try the undo/redo system Tutorial progress: ---|---------------- Now let's see how to reverse what you have done. Choose Undo from the Edit menu on the garden window. The last corn seed you planted will disappear. Now choose Redo from the Edit menu. The corn seed will appear again. All of the tool actions and many actions in other windows are undoable using this system (see How to undo an action for a list of undoable actions). === Plant some tomato seedlings Tutorial progress: ----|--------------- * Pick up the seed packet and choose tomato seedlings If you have put down the seed packet, pick it up again. Now click on the third drop-down list box on the toolbar, after "seed packet" and "plant," and choose Tomato seedling. * Plant some tomato seedlings Plant your seedling the same way you planted seeds. Move the seed packet to a soil patch and click, making sure that the cursor is inside the soil patch. You will see a 3D tomato seedling growing out of the spot where you clicked. [If you see a triangle instead of a 3D plant, turn off the Draw plants as symbols option in the Options menu. If you don't see anything where you clicked, you may have missed the soil patch; try planting again.] Plant a few more tomato seedlings. * Turn on plant symbols over plants Notice that with a seedling it's much harder to know where the base of the plant is, since there is no triangle. However, you can make it much easier. Choose Draw symbols over plants from the Options menu. A triangle plant symbol will appear over your seedlings, exactly as if they were seeds. Let's leave that option on for the duration of the tutorial so you can find the bases of your plants easily. Later you might want to turn off the option to make the plants look more realistic. === Water the soil Tutorial progress: -----|-------------- If you are still holding the seed packet, put it down. Now pick up the watering can and move it over to either of the prepared soil patches. Make sure the cursor is inside the soil patch. Click once to add the amount of water shown in the box after the water tool action. Do the same for the other soil patch. === Set watering options Tutorial progress: ------|------------- Let's change how much water the watering can waters. On the toolbar, the value box (the last drop-down list box) shows different amounts of water you can add to the soil. Click on the value box and choose a new amount, say two liters, from the list. Water the soil again. Put down the watering can when you are done. The new amount you chose will apply each time you use the watering can until you change it again. === Use the growcorder and look at the browser Tutorial progress: -------|------------ * Pick up the growcorder and use it on a soil patch The growcorder is a tool that lets you get more information about an object in the garden. Pick up the growcorder by right-clicking on it. In the third drop-down box on the toolbar, choose the tool action magnify. Then click on one of the prepared soil patches (but not near the base of any plant) to magnify the soil patch. The browser will appear. The browser is a quite complicated viewer that helps you get lots of information about the objects in the simulation. Objects are simply things that are simulated -- the garden, the weather, soil patches, soil amendments, and plants. In the browser you will see a soil profile, which is like a cross-section, of the soil patch you chose in the browser, with soil color, temperature or other information displayed as you move down from the surface of the soil. Also notice that the title bar of the browser (at the top) shows you the name of the soil patch you are browsing right now. [If you don't see information about a soil patch, you didn't click inside the soil patch and away from the plant bases -- go back to the garden window and try clicking on the soil patch again.] * Use the growcorder on a plant Go back to the garden window, and still holding the growcorder, click at the base of a tomato seedling. The tomato plant will appear in the browser. [If you see soil patch information, you didn't click at the base of the plant; go back and try again, and look for the leaf cursor .] You can use the buttons above the plant to turn it around, see it from the top or side, and zoom in and out. * Use the growcorder on the weather Go back to the garden window again, and holding the growcorder, click in the garden picture outside of any soil patches. Now the browser will appear with a 30-day scrolling view of various weather values, like temperature and precipitation. As you haven't run the simulation yet, there will not be much weather information to see, but you can see where the weather will scroll by. * Look at the list of objects in the browser You can also select different objects within the browser by choosing them from the drop-down list box at the top of the browser. Click on that box now and look carefully at the list that appears. The first item on the list is the weather object, of which you can only have one. After the weather object are soil patches, prefixed with an abbreviation of "s" and a unique number. Within each soil patch are one or more plants (assuming you planted some), each prefixed with a "p" plus a unique number. After the last plant or soil patch on the list is a list of all the templates you have available, each labeled with a "T" before their name. Templates are like stencils (or cookie cutters) -- you make copies of them when you create a soil patch or plant a seed. * Look at the numbers side of the browser Now you have seen all the displays on what is called the pictures side of the browser, which shows you graphical representations of information on the simulation objects. But the browser also goes deeper with a numbers side, in which you can examine and change many numbers in the simulation. You can look at the pictures side , the numbers side , or both sides of the browser by clicking on the corresponding button. Try looking at both sides of the browser now by clicking on the both sides button. On the numbers side of the browser, you will see a list of browser components with blue bars that show the values of aspects. Aspects are individual simulation variables, like today's temperature. Some of these values can be changed by dragging the blue sliders or by typing in new values, and some values cannot be changed. * Choose another group The numbers you see on the numbers side of the browser are organized into groups of related aspects. To see a different group, click on the group box at the top of the browser (below the objects box) and choose a different group from the list. If the aspects showing in the numbers side of the browser are not available for the selected object, they will be disabled ("grayed out"). For example, if you choose the group Plant draw internodes when a soil patch is selected, the numbers side browser components will be disabled. When you are finished, close the browser, then return to the garden window and right-click to put the growcorder down. === Move the simulation ahead Tutorial progress: --------|----------- If you want to plant any more seeds of different types, do it now. You know how to choose the variety and how to plant the seeds. (Don't plant too many seeds, though, because the more plants you plant, the slower the simulation will run, and the longer it will take for all the plants to redraw. If the program seems to take too long to run or draw, see How to speed up the simulation and How to make the plants draw faster.) * Click the month button twice Ready to move ahead? Click on the month button on the garden window toolbar. The date will move ahead one day at a time and will stop after a month. If you want to stop before the month is up, click anywhere on the garden picture (under the toolbar on the garden window). Your plants are growing beautifully, and you aren't doing a thing. Why? Because the plants are all growing optimally. You'll learn about growing plants more realistically later (see the explanation of the simulation options window), but for now, just watch them grow. [If your plants aren't growing well, choose Simulation from the Options menu, then click the Magic button, then click OK.] Move the simulation ahead one more month by clicking on the month button one more time. === Harvest some corn Tutorial progress: ---------|---------- * Choose the glove action harvest whole You can harvest either in the garden window or in the browser. First let's harvest some ears of corn in the garden window and pull up one of our corn plants at the same time. If you are holding a tool, drop it. Select the glove action harvest whole in the actions box on the toolbar. * Harvest a whole corn plant Now move the cursor to the base of a corn plant. You will know when the cursor is at the base of the plant because you will see the leaf cursor . If the ears on that corn plant are ready to harvest, an icon of a corn ear will appear at the base of the corn plant. If the icon that appears looks more like a green blob than a corn ear, it means the ears aren't ready to harvest; run the simulation for another week or two (or three) and try again. When you see the icon of a corn ear, click at the base of the plant. The whole corn plant will disappear, and in the harvest panel at the bottom of the garden window, some corn ears will appear. * Look at the harvest panel In the harvest panel are all the plant parts you have harvested from the garden, including fruits, leaves, roots, and whole plants. Hold the mouse over the harvested item to see a hint with some information about it. If there are more items in the harvest list than you can see, you can click on the up and down arrows on the harvest panel to see more items. === Drag organic matter blobs around Tutorial progress: ----------|--------- * Look at the organic matter blob When you have finished harvesting your corn, look back where the plant was; in its place is a greenish blob (). We will refer to this item by its technical name: an "organic matter blob." Organic matter blobs represent the parts of plants that you don't eat. You can drag them around and place them on different soil patches. You might want to designate one soil patch as your compost pile and drag all your organic matter blobs there. As soon as the simulation starts running, each organic matter blob will decay into the soil patch it is lying on. * Drag the organic matter blob Put down any tool you might be holding, then try dragging the organic matter blob from one soil patch to another. The surface color of the soil patches might change as the amount of mulch on them increases or decreases. Note that you can drag organic matter blobs in any of the glove's tool action modes -- it's not a tool action to drag the organic matter blobs. And organic matter blobs don't have a hint, nor does the cursor change when you move the mouse over them. === Change the tomato plant Tutorial progress: -----------|-------- Before we harvest a tomato we will take a look at the underlying model of the tomato plant. This is where the simulation gets really interesting -- you can enter into the model and play with it. * Use the growcorder on a tomato plant Pick up the growcorder by right-clicking on it. Move the growcorder to the base of a tomato plant, then click. The browser will appear with the tomato plant selected. [If the pictures side of the browser does not show a drawing of the plant (if it shows plant biomass or stresses), choose "drawing" from the list there. If drawing mode is selected, but you still can't see a tomato plant, the magnification setting may be wrong for the plant -- click the center button to center the plant. If you see information for a soil patch or the weather instead of a plant, you didn't click at the base of a plant -- use the growcorder again.] * Find internode length on the browser numbers side Now let's make your tomato plant into a dwarf tomato plant. Click the both sides button to see both sides of the browser. On the numbers side of the browser, choose the group Plant draw internodes from the group drop-down list box (under the object box). * Change the internode length A plant's internode length is the length of the stem between nodes (the places where leaves come off the stem). Making that number shorter will make the plant shorter. Find the browser component panel on the numbers side of the browser labeled Internode length at optimal biomass and full expansion. Once you've found the right value, move the slider down about halfway from where it was. See that the plant has redrawn smaller than it was. * Rename the plant To keep track of which tomato plant you changed, let's rename it. In the browser, click the notes button. In the notes editor that appears, click Rename, then type "dwarf tomato" in the dialog that appears, then click OK. Click Done to close the notes editor. Now go back to the garden window and move the cursor over the plant you renamed. The new name will show in a hint (but not if another application is selected). === Harvest some tomatoes Tutorial progress: ------------|------- * Use the growcorder on a tomato plant Now to harvest some of those luscious tomatoes. The close-up picture in the browser allows you to harvest single fruits and leaves. Find a plant that has some tomato fruits on it, and choose it from the list in the browser or click on it with the growcorder. Now you should be looking at the plant in the pictures side of the browser. [If the pictures side of the browser does not show a drawing of the plant (if it shows plant biomass or stresses), choose "drawing" from the list there. If drawing mode is selected, but you still can't see a tomato plant, the magnification setting may be wrong for the plant -- click the center button to center the plant. If you see information for a soil patch or the weather instead of a plant, choose a tomato plant from the object drop-down list box at the top of the browser. If the plant doesn't have any fruits, click the grow button on the browser above the plant a few times until you see fruit.] * Switch to harvest mode Start harvest mode by clicking on the harvest button on the pictures side of the browser. The cursor will change to look like a hand. * Harvest some tomatoes Move the cursor over to the tomato plant. When the cursor is over a ripe tomato fruit, an icon of a tomato fruit will appear. When you see a fruit icon over a fruit on the plant, click. The fruit will disappear from the plant, and the fruit icon will appear in the small plant harvest panel under the plant. Also notice that the fruits you picked also appear in the garden harvest panel as part of the total garden harvest. Harvest some more tomato fruits this way. * Harvest the rest of the tomatoes in the garden window You can also harvest parts of a plant in the garden window. Let's harvest the rest of the ripe fruits on our tomato plants. Close the browser, then click on the garden window, put down any tool you might be holding, and choose the glove action harvest parts. Now click at the base of a tomato plant. All the mature edible parts of the plant will disappear from the plant, and icons to represent them will appear in the garden harvest panel. The rest of the plant will remain intact, unless the plant has to be pulled up to be harvested (see the Harvest parts tool action for details on this). === Move ahead to fall Tutorial progress: -------------|------ * Make the simulation run faster Now let's finish the gardening year and prepare the soil for next year. Before we do that, though, let's make the simulation run faster. Choose Draw plants as symbols from the Options menu on the garden window. Your corn and tomato plants will turn into triangles. * Run until October Now click on the month button until it is about time for the garden to get ready for winter, maybe in October. Remember that you can stop the simulation at any time by clicking in the garden window. [If the date is already in October, you can skip this step.] === Harvest the whole tomato and corn plants Tutorial progress: --------------|----- * Use the glove action harvest whole At the end of the season, we want to harvest anything that is left to be harvested. To harvest what is left and pull up the plants, put down any tool you might be holding, then choose the glove action harvest whole. Click at the base of each plant symbol to harvest the plant completely. * Run for one day To get rid of the organic matter blobs that are floating around on top of the soil patches, run the simulation for one day by clicking on the button showing the day of the month. Now the organic matter blobs have been added to the mulch layer on the soil patches. === Prepare another soil patch Tutorial progress: ---------------|---- * Make a new soil patch The first thing we want to do to prepare for next year is to get another soil bed ready to plant next year. Right-click on the shovel to pick it up, then choose the shovel action new soil patch. Move the shovel so that the cursor is over the third soil bed in the picture. Click and drag the mouse to create a square roughly the size of the patch you want to make. [If nothing happens, check that you have the new soil patch tool action selected in the second drop-down list box on the toolbar.] As soon as you release the mouse button, the soil patch basic parameters window will appear asking for the total area of the soil patch and some other parameters. Click OK to accept the default soil patch area of one square meter (about 10 square feet) and other default parameters. * Shape the soil patch Now you have a square soil patch; but you want to make the patch look like the outline you have on the screen. As soon as you stopped dragging, the shovel action on the toolbar switched to shape soil patch. Click near any corner of the new soil patch, inside the patch, and drag the mouse; that corner will move. Move the four corners around this way until you are satisfied with the patch. When you are finished shaping your soil patch, right-click to put the shovel down. * Look at the cursor in the new soil patch Creating soil patches with the shovel is an important step in Garden with Insight(TM). It tells the program that these are the areas in which you want your garden to grow. Notice that the cursor changes to an arrow with a square in the new soil patch you have prepared, just like it does in the other soil patches. === Enrich and mix the soil Tutorial progress: ----------------|--- * Pick up the bag, choose Compost, and add it to the soil Put down the shovel. Pick up the bag and select Compost from the list of bag contents (the third box on the toolbar). Click once in each soil patch to add the amount of soil amendment shown in the box after the apply tool action. The soil patch may change color to indicate the addition of material (depending on what you added). [If the two value boxes in the toolbar moved down to make a second toolbar line when you picked up the bag, nothing is wrong. This happens if the names of the materials in the bag are too long to show all the toolbar choices on one line. When there is a second toolbar line, the garden picture area gets smaller, and you can see the rest of the garden by scrolling down.] * Look at the bag amounts You can change the amount of material the bag applies with each click in the same way you did with the watering can, by choosing a different amount from the value box (the last box). Just look at the amounts there now. * Double-dig the soil The bag doesn't mix materials into the soil; it just puts them on top. Let's work that organic matter deeply into the soil by double-digging. Double-digging is a method of deeply mixing and loosening the soil that is used by many gardeners. Put down the bag and pick up the shovel. Choose the shovel action double-dig soil. Click once in each soil patch. Now your compost is fully mixed in. Also notice that whatever mulch you had on top of the soil patch (which might have made the patch look brown or gray) got mixed in too. === Mulch the soil for winter Tutorial progress: -----------------|-- * Pick up the bag, choose Straw, and put some on the soil Applying a mulch to the top of the soil is one of the best ways to protect the soil from wind erosion and cold. We'll apply a mulch of straw. Put down the shovel and pick up the bag. Choose Straw from the list of bag contents (the third box on the toolbar). Click on each soil patch a few times until the soil patch has enough straw on top to change its color to a light brown. [If it doesn't turn exactly light brown, don't worry. Just put a few clicks of straw on.] In the winter, your mulch will insulate the soil surface from the wind and cold. In the spring, your mulch will keep the soil moist and cool and will encourage biological activity. === Plant a cover crop Tutorial progress: ------------------|- * Pick up the seed packet, plant some peas A cover crop helps to keep soil from eroding over the winter, and a legume cover crop (such as peas) puts nutrients back into the ground. Plant some cover plants now using the seed packet. Right-click on the seed packet to pick it up, then choose Peas. Plant several seeds in each soil patch. You might wonder how you can plant seeds with mulch on the soil. We assume that when you plant seeds on a mulched soil patch, you are pulling the mulch away when you plant each seed. === Graph weather aspects Tutorial progress: -------------------| * Use the growcorder on the weather Now that you know how to plant and harvest a garden, let's take a closer look at the simulation using the graph system on the weather. Put down the seed packet, pick up the growcorder, and click in an area of the screen that has no soil patches or plants. The browser will appear with weather information. [If you see soil patch information, you clicked in a soil patch. Go back to the garden window and click in an area of the garden that has no soil patches, where the cursor is a simple arrow. ] * Look on the numbers side of the browser at the Weather today group Click on the numbers side button to see the numbers side of the browser. From the group box on the browser, pick the group Weather today. You should see the minimum, maximum and mean air temperature aspects for the current day of the simulation. * Graph minimum temperature Select the browser component labeled Minimum temperature today by clicking on it -- it will turn white. Now click on the graph button. The graph window will appear. On top of the graph window, the graph item options window may appear with graph options for the aspect you chose. If it appears, click OK to accept the current settings. [If the graph item options window doesn't appear, nothing is wrong -- it just means the option to show that window when you first graph an aspect is turned off.] In the graph window, the legend below the graph shows the aspect you chose. * Graph maximum and mean temperature Return to the browser, click on the browser component labeled Maximum temperature today, and click the graph button again. Now do the same for the Mean temperature today component. Now in the graph window, all three aspects will be shown in the graph legend. When you are finished adding the three aspects to the graph, close the browser. * Look at the empty graph Notice that the graph is empty. This is an important point to understand: the graph window only starts to record aspects after you choose them. Once an aspect is chosen for graphing, its value is recorded and graphed every day. If you remove an aspect from the list, it will stop being recorded and all the stored values will be lost. * Collapse the garden window Before we run the simulation again, let's make the simulation run faster. Click on the collapse/expand button on the garden window to collapse the window. In the collapsed state the garden window does not redraw the plants and soil patches. * Run the simulation Now let's run the simulation so there is something to see in the graph. Click on the year button on the garden window. Watch the graph as the lines begin to move across it. The legend below the graph shows which colored line goes with each aspect. If you want to stop the simulation before the year is up, click on any of the date buttons or the message area on the collapsed garden window. * Hide mean temperature Suppose you want to hide the mean temperature so you can see the range of daily temperatures more clearly. On the mean temperature line in the list under the graph, click the check-mark. The mean temperature graph line will disappear from the graph. Click the check-mark again and the graph line will appear again. Hiding and showing different lines makes it easier to look at a complicated graph. * You've done it! That's it! You've learned how to run the simulation. It's simple: plant some plants, take care of them, and enjoy the harvest. Of course, there is much more to explore and learn. To learn more, read over specific parts in the Reference sections of the help system. See you in the garden!