There are three Garden facilities in the world. One is located in Balamb, one near the capitol of Galbadia, and the last one is isolated in the frozen lands of Trabia. Each Garden specializes in training professional mercenaries and soldiers. Armies from all over send their people to the Gardens for training, and, while extremely expensive, the gains in experience and power can be worth the cost.
While it take ten years to complete the full Garden Training Course, many militaries send their troops for much shorter, but just as rigorous, training courses. These courses usually last for a single year. By the end of that year, the soldiers have undergone the most intense training available on the planet. There is no maximum age limit, but certain physical demands generally limits those that complete the course to below 40.
Upon completion of the training courses, the soldier is not a full fledged Garden Mercenary, which takes the full ten years of training, but instead receives some special abilities and combat bonuses. Taking these training courses can be very expensive, and usually costs over 50,000G per student, but that cost does include room & board, meals, and any training expenses that appear during that year.
The bonuses listed below are for normal OCCs that train at a Garden, these bonuses are not applicable to the Garden Mercenary OCC.