5x5 squares is the next level up. Unfortunately, my take-forever flowers can't be harvested yet, so I don't know what the outer limits of the last level are. But it's almost certainly more than 5x5.

And yes you do. After that, you need the shortcut that gets you to the top of the island, then the shortcut that takes you to the center of the top of the island. They're very helpful.

I'll have to fix that, then.

Also, I have four areas in Prosperity. I have eight 3x3 patches of fodder that do nothing but pump out Runeys every day, which is amusing to me. In order to make it work best, though, I'm going to max out the number of every kind of Runey in my homestead except for Grass. Then my homestead will be a hellacious Grass Runey Factory.

Oh, now I get the name.

My pumpkins are coming in very quickly, by the way.

how do you get a shortcut to iris?

It's on the Whale's Flank. Pass the iron gate, then head for the northwest corner. You'll find a rock that's "shining," for lack of a better term. Use your SP hammer attack on it, and you open a passage from the first room in the cave. It saves about two to three minutes of on-foot travel time.

my gate is still closed. how do i open it?

Man I can't get past that stupid gate yet.

This is going to take forever.

Best go level up my forging skills I suppose! Now that I have access to Silver and various other neat baubles, it's going to start being time to make some real armor.

Thanks to DKII, who got these straight from X-SEED:

• Go to Iris' house in the evening to trigger the cut scene
  
• After the 15th of Spring, talk to Rosetta to learn about the Moondrop Flowers
• Plant the Moondrop Flowers outside Iris' house and grow them until they bloom to meet Iris.
• One week after you meet Iris, you'll have the 2nd dream sequence.
• Talk to Mist in the late morning when she's outside her home watering flowers.
• The next evening you'll have the 3rd dream sequence.
• Attempt to visit Iris at night once you have her friendship level high enough (it says level 20).  Can do this pretty easily by giving her one of the Moondrop Flowers you grew once each evening.  Anyway this should trigger a scene with a strange man that will end with unlocking the gate at the end of the Fin.

I spoilered the gate part above, if you're interested (it's a minor spoiler, and poor dib8rman took two months to get through that peice of wrought iron).

And yes, silver gets you the better equipment. But wait until you reach the Snow Ruins: your hats in particular get ridiculous.

Ahhhh, I see. Then all I'm missing is an increased friendship level with Iris. Very well, I'll take care of that.

I'm going to have to budget my time for the Fire Ruins, I think. Thank God for those shortcuts.

oh... i stopped going to see her because it took too much time to travel all the way there.  guess i will need to grow some more flowers too

Actually, if you have a blender, one or two drinks of Tomato Juice will do the trick.