Deduce #37: The allotment — the solution

The Deduce puzzle from September 20, 2026, worked through clue by clue: 8 clues, 4 rounds of crossing off, and no guessing anywhere.

The puzzle

Four people — Ben, Gwen, Finn and Iris — and three things to work out about each: their crop, tool and plot. The clues only ever rule things out.

1. The one with the rake is exactly 3 plots after the carrots grower.
2. Iris is not the carrots grower.
3. Gwen is the rhubarb grower.
4. The leeks grower is not the one with the rake.
5. The one with the fork is not the one on plot 3.
6. The one with the fork is not the one on plot 5.
7. Finn is the onions grower.
8. The onions grower is the one with the shears.

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 2, “Iris is not the carrots grower”: carrots comes off Iris.

Clue 3, “Gwen is the rhubarb grower”: rhubarb comes off Ben, Finn and Iris. That settles it: Gwen’s crop is rhubarb.

Clue 7, “Finn is the onions grower”: onions comes off Ben and Iris. That settles it: Finn’s crop is onions and Iris’s crop is leeks.

Clue 8, “The onions grower is the one with the shears”: shears comes off Ben, Gwen and Iris. That settles it: Finn’s tool is shears.

Round 2

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

Leeks is Iris’s, so it comes off Ben. That settles it: Ben’s crop is carrots.

Clue 1, “The one with the rake is exactly 3 plots after the carrots grower”: rake comes off Ben; plot 4, plot 5 and plot 6 come off Ben. That settles it: Ben is on plot 3.

Clue 4, “The leeks grower is not the one with the rake”: rake comes off Iris.

Round 3

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

Nobody but Gwen can still have rake, so Gwen’s tool is rake.

plot 3 is Ben’s, so it comes off Gwen, Finn and Iris.

Clue 1, “The one with the rake is exactly 3 plots after the carrots grower”: plot 4 and plot 5 come off Gwen. That settles it: Gwen is on plot 6.

Clue 5, “The one with the fork is not the one on plot 3”: fork comes off Ben. That settles it: Ben’s tool is spade.

Clue 6, “The one with the fork is not the one on plot 5”: plot 5 comes off Iris.

Round 4

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

Spade is Ben’s, so it comes off Iris. That settles it: Iris’s tool is fork.

plot 6 is Gwen’s, so it comes off Finn and Iris. That settles it: Iris is on plot 4.

plot 4 is Iris’s, so it comes off Finn. That settles it: Finn is on plot 5.

The answer

Previous: Deduce #36 (Sat, Sep 19) · Next: Deduce #38 (Mon, Sep 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.