Each year Vernon Cabbagehead, (Mr. Cabbagehead to his friends), wants to be left in peace to grow his award winning vegetable garden for the annual Garden Club contest. However, his tedious neighbours tend to interfere when he is away, and frequently drop by to help themselves to the garden produce. Can Mr. Cabbagehead create a beautiful garden and finally win the blue ribbon?
In Mr. Cabbagehead's Garden, vegetable cards are drafted and placed in the garden plot, a grid of six cards by three cards. Depending on which cards are selected, one of the tedious neighbours may interfere with the garden in a variety of ways. Players must be careful in their choice of vegetable to plant, in its position in the garden, and in maintaining their supply of invaluable bees, which give Mr. Cabbagehead more flexibility in planting.
Once all cards have been drawn, the game is over and the Garden Club committee visits to evaluate Mr. Cabbagehead's garden. The number and position of vegetables matter, and players must be creative in developing a garden that is both pleasing to the eye and plentiful in vegetables.
Originally released in 2016 in a print-and-play version with four neighbours, the 2018 published deluxe edition of Mr. Cabbagehead's Garden adds more neighbours, more variety in scoring, and a streamlined set of rules that includes a fixed garden plot grid variant. More importantly, the published version includes rules for two players.
- Whimsical artwork
- Neighbors get stuck arguing and don't affect garden
- Tons of variety with different neighbors
- Combination of neighbors changes strategies
- Artwork might not appeal to everyone
- creating a vegetable garden
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Set Collection — Going for different Awards and planting the different vegetables in various patterns or near each other in order to score victory points.
- Token drawing — As you are choosing vegetables you are also choosing um how many neighbor tokens you're going to be drawing each turn.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it is all for fun
- these are games that have stood the test of time
- the rumor and asset system I really like but it is the narrative experience that I really really love about the kilforth series.
- some of the rules aren't 100 clear there's things you have to look up and some rule books.
- I really have never seen something like it.
- it's the only game in my collection that has a perfect score.
- everything just works so well.
References (from this video)
- fun, humorous art style and satisfying tableau-building
- enjoyable solo replay with varied scoring options
- theme is very silly; not for everyone
- harvest and cultivating vegetables with tableau mechanics
- vegetable garden tableau-building
- playful, quirky art and humor
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Tableau Building — build a tableau of vegetables to score; neighbors interaction influences scoring
- tableau-building / set collection — build a tableau of vegetables to score; neighbors interaction influences scoring
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I really really enjoyed it
- I absolutely love this one I love the art of this one too and this one will definitely be one that I choose to bring traveling and stuff in the future. I really really like it
- I freaking loved it. I am so, so happy that I have it in the collection
- I absolutely love it and I'm excited to hop into those
- I love engine-building games
- I absolutely love the solo I've heard a ton of good things about the solo from a few of the people in the board game Garden solo community
- I think it's very cool that you can name the baby too; it just makes me very happy
References (from this video)
- fun drafting
- humorous graphics
- accessible for families
- may depend on luck of the draft
- slightly thinky for very young players
- vegetable drafting and placement
- Tableau garden of vegetables
- humorous, light-hearted
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Drafting — on each turn draft from three vegetables with left/middle/right options
- set collection / adjacency scoring — score vegetables by adjacency to same type and complete merit objectives
- tile/tableau placement — place vegetables on a 6x3 grid to score points
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I love this game so much
- this is a cozy coffee table game
- the graphics of this game are hilarious
- it warms my heart
- this one is very, very fun
- calico which the theme of it you know making a quilt and having cats come and lay on the quilts
References (from this video)
- Host expresses happiness at finding the game
- Price point found at store
- Limited on-device details provided in the vlog
- Garden planning and tile-based arrangement
- Garden/vegetable patch
- observational, casual
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Pattern-based scoring / set collection — Build patterns or collect specific tile patterns for points
- Tile Placement — Place garden tiles to form patterns and optimize scoring areas
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I'm a little stressed but it's fine
- I ended up getting Mr cabbage head's Garden which I have been looking for at a decent price
- Charcuterie the board game which was one of my like number one most excited games for 2023
- Wish me luck I'm a little bit nervous for the like working at the booth kind of thing
- I look very tired
- Good night friends and I will see you tomorrow for Gen Con day one
References (from this video)
- visually appealing and thematic
- solo mode is pleasant
- puzzle feels generic
- pre-arranged formations are hard to remember
- not highly differentiated from similar pattern-building games
- pattern building and puzzle management with neighbor interference
- vegetable garden
- quirky and lighthearted
- Peloponnese
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Pattern Building — players arrange vegetable cards to form scoring patterns
- threat/tamper tokens — neighbors insert tokens that alter puzzle progress or scoring
- tile/card placement — placing elements to build layouts and influence scoring
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- this is very much a back and forth take that style of game as you are infecting each other with these different viruses and diseases
- it's a random take that fest
- this game goes on way longer than the box says
- this is quite a cool quirky little game at least in terms of the visual appeal
- the economic part of this game is very tight
- it's really solid and a lot of fun
References (from this video)
- Unique, quirky artwork
- Bees mechanic adds a twist to drafting
- Solo-focused design limits multi-player appeal
- Not a strong reason to revisit regularly
- Puzzle-like drafting with beehive influence
- Weird-looking garden with beehives
- Quirky, solitary puzzle feel
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- bees mechanic influencing drafting — Bees determine which cards can be drafted next, adding a constraint.
- patterned card play — Play cards in patterns on the table and aim for optimal configurations.
- solo-minded puzzle — Primarily single-player friendly puzzle with two-player capability.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the twist on this game was that these are animals not only do they move in different ways when you landed on them on the board which means you could plan turns ahead
- Meadow is kind of this little Tableau building game as you're playing cards out in front of you
- no rules overhead in this one
- this was almost enough for me to keep this one around
- there was no real interesting decisions to be made and it became quite frustrating at times
- less is more