Garden gnomes are small mythical creatures traditionally used as decorations in gardens and parks. They come in many different poses, sizes and colors and can be made of a variety of materials including plastics and resin. These cute critters are also popular as lawn ornaments, desk accessories and even used in craft projects. Gnomes are often believed to bring good luck, prosperity and protection to the home or garden. There are even a few that are designed to be functional like gnome garden lights or those that are carrying items like pots or watering cans.
In the 2.1 update, a new character was added to the game called Bernie the Bee who replaces Stinky the Snail in the Zen Garden. The player can choose to leave Bernie asleep at the bottom of the screen, but if they click on him, he will wake up and begin to collect coins dropped by their plants. The player can also feed him a piece of chocolate, which will cause him to hyper-collect coins at an extremely fast speed (for a snail) for about an hour.
The main feature of the Zen Garden is the ability to display all of the plants the player has collected in one place and view their progress. In addition, the player can also move their Mushroom and Aquarium Gardens into the Zen Garden as well. In addition, the player can buy the Zen Garden’s Golden Watering Can which allows them to water any plant in their collection with a single use and gives an additional experience boost.
Unlike in the main game, players can also play their Zen Garden without their Plants vs Zombies game open in full screen. However, any timers in the Zen Garden such as Stinky the Snail’s sleep timer will continue to run. In addition, if they do not have their Zen Garden open, they will not be able to collect coins from it until the player opens the game again.
The Gardener can also use the Zen Garden to grow and upgrade their ‘Backyard Battleground’, which is their own front yard base in the game. Here, the player can edit their character’s abilities and customize them, choose quests, fight AI or challenge up to three friends to cooperative and multiplayer action modes. It is also where the player can find and purchase new items for their ‘Backyard Battleground’, such as a more powerful Wave 2 for the game’s campaign mode.
The Gardener can also move the plants they have in their Backyard Battleground into the Zen Garden, and they can move their Zen Garden into any other of their gardens or into the main game. Mushroom and Aquarium garden plants can also be moved into the Zen Garden, but they will not grow or drop coins there unless they are watered and made happy in the Mushroom or Aquarium garden. If the player has a Wheel Barrow, it will also work in the Zen Garden and can be used to move plants around the garden or into the main game.