I was looking for a nice Minecraft challenge today, and I decided to return and tackle an Ocean Monument that Joop, Phisagram, and I found a few months back. I’d started an approach to the monument via an underground tunnel back then, and and so I had considerable success today avoiding the bulk of the Guardians by continuing the tunnel and then working my way upwards from below.

Ocean Monument Garden, looking toward the monument-arch Greenhouse,” animated GIF by @GumbyBlockhead

Although my traditional approach makes use of gravel for removing the water from the rooms, I was fortunate enough to run into a chamber of sponges early on, and that made things all the easier. Although I had started mining the Sea Lanterns to begin with, once I found the sponges it was a lot easier to move more quickly and leave the lanterns in place and so a good number of them remain where they were originally located.

“Ocean Monument Garden Dedication,” animated GIF by @GumbyBlockhead

Once the main cavity was cleared of water and the chamber walls were broken down, I tackled the arch area, thinking that the existing structure would make for a nice greenhouse. The first crop planted was the wheat in the greenhouse under the arch.

“Greenhouse under the Arch,” animated GIF by @GumbyBlockhead

The main section of the garden features a large fields of each of watermelons, pumpkins, carrots, potatoes, and beets. To ensure good plant growth, I installed a lot of torches within the monument and also opened up the ceiling to sunlight by enclosing the top portion of the monument in glass.  Once the gardens were planted, I took some time to light up the exterior as well with some sea lanterns from a previous monument.

The end result looks beautiful from the nearby tower.

“Ocean Monument Garden, At Night,” capture by @GumbyBlockhead.

Here is a shot from another angle, showing the Ocean Monument, and the Gumby Tower located on the nearby isle. Joop’s Bountiful Tree is visible beside the tower.

“Ocean Monument Garden with Joop’s Tree and the Gumby Tower,” capture by @GumbyBlockhead

I once spent the better part of a week clearing out an ocean monument with the intent of building a Guardian Grinder. Sadly the project was on a server that is no longer online, and so I only have screen captures of the progression. I’ll have to return and attempt that project on GumbyCraft, knowing that the world won’t be suddenly up and disappearing on me.