Our game · Live on the App Store and Google Play
Pop a seed in. See what comes up.
Tap to plant, tap when the water-drop asks, pull the odd weed, shoo the odd snail, and harvest for coins. Plants grow in real time even when the app is closed, so a radish is ready in thirty seconds and a pumpkin is waiting after dinner. The garden keeps its own year too: visitors call when it suits them, two colours of one flower can leave a third overnight, the season decides what will sow, and the Produce Show is judged every Monday. Free with gentle ads, or £2.99 once to remove them.
- 33
- things to grow, eight of them colours you breed yourself
- 14
- visitors to spot, from the first bee to a fox at dusk
- £2.99
- once to remove ads and make the extras free
Some gardens want a weekend. This one wants a minute.
The whole game came from one rule: the phone should go back in the pocket. Radishes take thirty seconds so the first visit feels alive. Pumpkins take longer so there is a reason to come back.
It grows while you are away
Close the app and the garden carries on in real time. Come back to something ready. No energy meters, no timers to buy.
Visitors on their own time
Bees find the lavender, a robin finds the bird bath, a hedgehog comes to the log pile after dark and a fox crosses at dusk. Fourteen in all, each one written up in the Visitors’ Book.
A garden with a year in it
Four real seasons. Crops that only sow in their own, frost to brush off a winter morning, and a greenhouse that grows anything whatever the month.
Judged on a Monday
The Produce Show sets a theme for the week and judges what you harvested, first thing Monday. Bronze, silver or gold, and the rosette goes in the journal.
How it is built
Fully native, small, and honest about money: everything in the garden is buyable with coins, and no ads while you are gardening.
Back to all work- Built twice, natively: Swift and SwiftUI on iPhone, Kotlin and Jetpack Compose on Android
- A small scene graph of our own on Android, shared across every game, rather than a game engine
- Wall-clock everything: growth, visitors, the seasons and the weekly show are read off the clock, not a running timer
- Visitors and overnight breeding are pure seeded functions, so the same garden and the same hours away give the same result on both phones
- StoreKit 2 and Play Billing for the one-off purchases and the optional subscription
- Ads only between shop visits, with rain, sunshine and coins as opt-in rewards, four a day at most
- Plays offline, saves on the device, keeps your podcast running
- All art and sound generated by the same tools as our other games
Questions people ask
- What kind of game is Pip & Trowel?
- A cosy gardening game for iPhone, iPad and Android. You plant seeds, water them when they ask, pull weeds, shoo snails and harvest for coins. Plants grow in real time, even when the app is closed, so visits last a minute or two. There are thirty-three things to grow, fourteen visitors to spot and a show judged every Monday.
- Is Pip & Trowel free?
- Yes. It is free with ads between visits to the shop, never while you are gardening. A single £2.99 purchase removes every ad forever and turns the optional extras into free buttons.
- How do you breed a new colour?
- Grow two different colours of the same flower, tulip, rose or pansy, next to an empty plot and leave them. Overnight the empty plot can come up a colour you cannot buy. There are eight to find, and some of them need a hybrid as a parent.
- What is the Gardener’s Almanac?
- An optional subscription. It turns the adverts off, leaves a rare seed packet each day, waters every thirsty plant on your first visit, keeps the greenhouse at full speed and gives an exclusive ornament each month that is yours to keep. Everything else in the garden is still bought with coins you earn by playing.
- Does it need an internet connection?
- No. It plays offline and saves on your device. Growth, visitors and the seasons are worked out from the clock, so nothing needs a server.
- Where can I get it?
- Pip & Trowel is out now on the App Store and Google Play, free to download on iPhone, iPad and Android.