Deduce #6: The gardens — the solution

The Deduce puzzle from August 20, 2026, worked through clue by clue: 7 clues, 4 rounds of crossing off, and no guessing anywhere.

The puzzle

Four people — Eve, Marco, Gwen and Vic — and three things to work out about each: their flower, gate and garden. The clues only ever rule things out.

1. The tulips grower is in a lower-numbered garden than the one by the oak gate.
2. The asters grower is exactly 3 gardens after the one by the stone gate.
3. Vic is not the dahlias grower.
4. Vic is the one in garden 2.
5. Gwen is not the asters grower.
6. Marco is the tulips grower.
7. The one by the iron gate is the one in garden 5.

The walkthrough

A round is one pass over the clues. Each round applies what the last one settled; every step below is an elimination the clues force, in the order a solver would take them.

Round 1

Start with every possibility open, and take the clues in order.

Clue 3, “Vic is not the dahlias grower”: dahlias comes off Vic.

Clue 4, “Vic is the one in garden 2”: garden 2 comes off Eve, Marco and Gwen. That settles it: Vic is in garden 2.

Clue 5, “Gwen is not the asters grower”: asters comes off Gwen.

Clue 6, “Marco is the tulips grower”: tulips comes off Eve, Gwen and Vic. That settles it: Marco’s flower is tulips.

Clue 7, “The one by the iron gate is the one in garden 5”: iron comes off Vic.

Round 2

Go back over the clues with the new facts in hand.

Clue 1, “The tulips grower is in a lower-numbered garden than the one by the oak gate”: oak comes off Marco and Vic; garden 5 comes off Marco.

Clue 2, “The asters grower is exactly 3 gardens after the one by the stone gate”: stone comes off Eve, Marco and Gwen; asters comes off Vic; garden 3 and garden 4 come off Eve. That settles it: Vic’s flower is poppies and Eve is in garden 5.

Clue 7, “The one by the iron gate is the one in garden 5”: iron comes off Marco. That settles it: Marco’s gate is pine.

Round 3

Go back over the clues with the new facts in hand.

Poppies is Vic’s, so it comes off Eve and Gwen. That settles it: Gwen’s flower is dahlias.

Nobody but Eve can still have asters, so Eve’s flower is asters.

Pine is Marco’s, so it comes off Eve, Gwen and Vic. That settles it: Vic’s gate is stone.

garden 5 is Eve’s, so it comes off Gwen.

Clue 7, “The one by the iron gate is the one in garden 5”: iron comes off Gwen. That settles it: Eve’s gate is iron and Gwen’s gate is oak.

Round 4

Go back over the clues with the new facts in hand.

Clue 1, “The tulips grower is in a lower-numbered garden than the one by the oak gate”: garden 4 comes off Marco; garden 3 comes off Gwen. That settles it: Marco is in garden 3 and Gwen is in garden 4.

The answer

Previous: Deduce #5 (Wed, Aug 19) · Next: Deduce #7 (Fri, Aug 21)

About Deduce

Deduce is Noggin’s daily logic grid: four people, three things to work out about each, and clues that never hand you an answer. Every puzzle has exactly one solution and can be finished by crossing off alone. How to play Deduce, or play today’s.