Grass Starter

Grass Starter is a placeable item that instantly creates a full-grown patch of grass when planted on a tile. On the Farm, that grass behaves like natural grass: it spreads over time to nearby tiles during spring through fall, then goes dormant in winter until the next spring. Once a Silo has been built, grass can be cut with a Scythe to produce Hay.

Although it is primarily intended for outdoor use where farm animals can graze on it, Grass Starter has some useful special behaviors. It can be placed inside a Farm Building or anywhere outside the Farm; in those cases, animals will not eat it, and it will not spread, but it can still be harvested into Hay. This makes it useful for guaranteed Hay production in protected spaces. Marnie sells Grass Starters at the Desert Festival for Calico Eggs.

A few placement tricks make Grass Starter especially efficient:

• Fences, Lightning Rods, and most decoration items can be placed on top of a planted Grass Starter.
• Covering the starter this way prevents animals from eating it, while still allowing the grass to expand underneath.
• This lets a grass patch keep spreading without being completely consumed by livestock.

Because grass spread and animal grazing interact, Grass Starter is often used to create self-renewing pasture areas for the barn and coop animals. If the starter is left exposed on the Farm, animals can eat it faster than it spreads, so protecting it with an object on top helps preserve the patch. Inside buildings or on non-Farm maps, the item becomes a controlled source of Hay rather than living pasture.

Grass also has a seasonal advantage and a winter drawback. During spring through fall it can spread naturally, but in winter it stops growing. Harvesting grass in winter is less productive than in other seasons, so players usually try to save or protect grass before winter begins.

One notable quirk affects the transition from winter to spring: any grass patches on the Farm on Winter 28 can multiply up to 40 times each on Spring 1, unless the game is exited before then. This makes late-winter grass preservation especially valuable for players who want a large spring pasture right away.