After hours and hours I finally got the box saying the garden was finished and the puzzle screen shows that it's complete... but there are no flowers!

When I drop a villager there it says enjoying the garden, so I know it's done but there's nothing there, it still looks the same as before.

Will everything still work with the GC and such without actually being able to see it? Or do I need to start over?

I've restarted my game and my computer and it doesn't help.

If they're enjoying the garden, I presume the game will behave as if the garden exists - it's likely only a visual glitch.

That's what I'm hoping. This is a relatively new village since I accidentally killed off my other one and I only have 7 puzzles left. Not that I couldn't get back there again, but it's already waaay past the point where I would want to LOL

I'll just keep going and see what happens.

It sounds like you're missing the image for the restored garden, or it's corrupted. That can happen for any number of reasons. As Lurkily said, it won't affect your ability to complete the game. You could probably fix the problem, though, if you'd like to see the garden.

I will do a search on restoring images... I know I saw something about that on here somewhere. Thanks!