Slow Grove

A young maple for your desk. Prune it, wire it and water it with your hands. Each day you water it, a season passes.

Tend a young maple a season at a time, here on this screen or in mixed reality on Meta Quest 3 or 3S.

On this screen: pick Shears, Wire or Water on the panel, then press, hold or drag a branch.

Seeds: grow more maples in your grove · Privacy: your maple stays on your device · Press kit

A naturalist's notebook. Each moment is found by tending your maple; the rest are left as clues.

Each maple keeps its own seasons. Tend one to look after it here; the others wait as you left them.

One minute to your first season. There is no way to lose: tend the maple a little, water it, and watch a season pass.

1. Tend it on this screen

• Shears: point at a branch until it glows, then press and hold to cut. Thick wood will not cut, so try a thinner branch.
• Wire: drag a thin branch to bend it into place.
• Water: tap Water to give it a day of care. Watering is what brings the next season; once it has had enough today, it rests until tomorrow.
• Undo takes back your last cut or bend, and Journal plays the seasons back. The line above the tools and the Harmony bar tell you what to try next.

2. In mixed reality (Meta Quest 3 or 3S)

• Open this page in the headset browser and tap Enter, then look down in front of you to put the maple on your desk. This Quest guidance only appears when your browser can enter mixed reality.
• With your hands: pinch a branch to cut or bend it, and pinch the wooden slab to place the maple.
• Holding Quest controllers? The trigger cuts and bends, and Controls on the panel lists every button: A for Shears, B for Wire, X for Water, Y for Undo, stick press for Photo (right) and Grove (left), and Grip to lift the watering can.

3. Make it yours

• Name your maple, Share it as a link, and save a Portrait or a Film of its seasons.
• Notes collects 24 field-note moments to discover; Grove is where your other maples wait, and where a seed link is planted to grow more.
• Your maple stays on your device; see Privacy for what that means.

Stuck? Close this, then follow the hint line above the tools; it always names the next useful thing to do.