Harvest Moon 64/Summer (Year 1)

It's summer! While it means hot lazy vacation days for most people, this will be one of the busiest seasons for you. Summer is the season of money, with tomatoes selling for 90G and corn selling for a whopping 120G. Although money is a priority this season, remember that there are higher priorities. If you get too tired to water your crops, go to sleep. Missing a couple of crops is much better than getting sick and missing a whole day.

At this point, if you have been incubating chickens as often as possible, you should have two chickens and a couple of chicks. This will become a decent source of money soon. Maria should be at a green heart or higher and both Elli and Karen should be at a blue heart or higher. If Karen is behind, as long as you don't mind taking advantage of the Dog Glitch, you should be okay.

Summer 1st
The first things that are obviously different are the new song and the weather channel report. You'll soon find that the wild growing plants have also changed. This means that your daily route will also change a little.

Maria has the next few days off, so we're going to invert our daily route. We need to go through town first, give gifts there and get the music box fixed before going through collecting wild herbs. This should give you a little bit of time to water some crops in the morning since most shops don't open until 9:00 (Rick's opens at 10:00). Maria will usually be somewhere around Moon Mountain or near the goddess pond, but sometimes stands near the church.

The first day of Summer is cause for celebration! Today is the Fireworks festival and we're going to be spending it with Maria. We don't need to worry about that until night, however, for this festival is one of those where everyone still walks around during the day. Rick's will be closed, but Lillia's will be open. Feed your chickens and chop down any crops that you didn't get to during spring. Give an egg to Elli and a flower to Basil, then go to the Flower Shop. Buy either 3 bags of tomato seeds and 2 bags of corn seeds or 3 bags of corn seeds and two bags of tomato seeds. Corn sells for a bit more than tomatoes, but it doesn't really make that much of a difference. Either way, walk out of Lillia's with 5 bags of seeds. Go through Moon Mountain gathering wild plants, giving a gift to Maria who's sure to be here.

Go back to your farm and plant the 5 seeds as close to the shipping bin as possible. It will take two trips from the watering hole to get all the plots watered. By now, it's probably night. Fill the watering can back up and head to the town square. If you didn't have enough money to buy the bottle, Rick will be selling it here. Buy it if you didn't earlier. Maria is in the top left corner, so find her and talk to her to watch fireworks, then light little sparklers. After creating lasting memories, the game will automatically end the day.

Summer 2nd and 3rd
The next few days are normal. This should be your routine for now: The first thing you do in the morning is feed your chickens and collect eggs (keep one for Elli). Then dig up another music box or water your plants until around 8:30. Run into town and give an egg to Elli and have Rick fix up your music box. Check for Maria next to the church, then leave town and go into Moon Mountain. Collect wild herbs and flowers and hand them out to whomever you please. Remember that walnuts and Medicinal Herbs sell for the most. Maria will most likely be here by the fisherman's tent, by the goddess pond, or near the cave. Hand her a music box and a flower (or cabbages if you stored any in your rucksack from spring). Maria should get to a yellow heart around this time. When you're done collecting herbs, run back to your farm and water your crops until you are too tired or it gets to around 10:00 or 11:00. Soon, you will get the silver watering can and watering will become much easier. For now, though, just water as much as you can without risking getting sick.

Summer 4th, 5th, and 6th
These days are normal working days. Hopefully, Maria will come by one of these nights while you're watering your crops and tell you to come follow her. If not, it should happen soon. When it does, drop what you're doing and follow her. You'll go up to the goddess pond to mingle among the fireflies and talk about keeping the water "crean" (silly Japanese people). Check the mail the next day to get the photograph of the firefly night taken by that creepy stalker photographer (shouldn't we have noticed the flash?). Well, whatever. You can stop bothering Maria for a while and start stalking Elli and Karen (girls like that, right?) From now on, focus on getting those music boxes to either Elli or Karen. They should both be at green hearts by now or close to it. They need to be at yellow hearts at least by the beginning of Fall, or you're in trouble.

Summer 7th and 8th
Try to water as much as you can. Dig up music boxes in the morning right after you feed your chickens and cut the grass whenever you have spare energy. Also, start giving flowers to Popuri whenever you can. Though it isn't important now, flowers are plentiful and free during summer. Before summer ends, also remember to get a walnut the Ellen, Elli's grandmother. This is your only chance to get the Walnut Cake recipe, because, if all goes as planned, she doesn't have long to live...

Summer 9th
Today is the Vegetable Festival. Don't bother gathering wild herbs today unless you absolutely have the time. Spend the day watering all your crops, digging up a music box, and cutting the grass that has grown to max height. When it is 3:00 or so, run to the town square and talk to the mayor to enter the festival. If you were bold enough to save a crop from spring, go ahead and enter it, but you probably won't win. Even if you do, you don't get anything for it. Talk to everyone twice and wander around until they get around to judging the vegetables, then get sent to bed well before your bedtime.

Summer 10th, 11th and 12th
If you haven't gotten it already, you should be getting the silver watering can soon. This will make things MUCH easier. The silver watering can not only waters three spots at once, but it holds twice as much water and takes less energy to use.

You should have gotten Maria's picture by now, so it's time to concentrate on Elli and Karen, though it'll be weird for a while, passing by Maria and not giving her anything. Both Elli and Karen should be at least at a blue heart by now. Although Elli is more important at this point than Karen, they both need to be at least at yellow by the end of summer. Give an egg to Elli and whatever you happen to have to Karen as often as possible. Don’t forget about Basil! A flower a day gets you the Power Berry in spring!

Summer 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th
Your recent crop harvests should have brought in a lot of money. Now that we have money to spare, use some of it to buy a cow. In order to win the winter cow festival, you must have a cow that REALLY likes you. We might as well go ahead and get started on it. One of these days, stop by Green Ranch after visiting Elli in Flower Bud Village and get a cow. The grass you've been cutting is kept as cow fodder, so as long as you've been keeping the grass cut, you shouldn't need to buy fodder for the cow.