Deduce #53: The gardens — the solution

The Deduce puzzle from October 6, 2026, worked through clue by clue: 8 clues, 3 rounds of crossing off, and no guessing anywhere.

The puzzle

Four people — Cleo, Sam, Uma and Tess — and three things to work out about each: their flower, gate and garden. The clues only ever rule things out.

1. Tess is not the one in garden 2.
2. Tess is the tulips grower.
3. Cleo is the one by the oak gate.
4. Cleo is not the one in garden 4.
5. The asters grower is in a lower-numbered garden than the one by the oak gate.
6. The one by the wicker gate is in a lower-numbered garden than the lilies grower.
7. The lilies grower is the one by the willow gate.
8. The one by the oak gate is exactly 2 gardens after Uma.

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 1, “Tess is not the one in garden 2”: garden 2 comes off Tess.

Clue 2, “Tess is the tulips grower”: tulips comes off Cleo, Sam and Uma. That settles it: Tess’s flower is tulips.

Clue 3, “Cleo is the one by the oak gate”: oak comes off Sam, Uma and Tess. That settles it: Cleo’s gate is oak.

Clue 4, “Cleo is not the one in garden 4”: garden 4 comes off Cleo.

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

Clue 7, “The lilies grower is the one by the willow gate”: lilies comes off Cleo; willow comes off Tess. That settles it: Cleo’s flower is dahlias.

Clue 8, “The one by the oak gate is exactly 2 gardens after Uma”: garden 2 comes off Cleo and Uma; garden 3 and garden 4 come off Uma. That settles it: Cleo is in garden 3 and Uma is in garden 1.

Round 2

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

Dahlias is Cleo’s, so it comes off Sam and Uma.

garden 3 is Cleo’s, so it comes off Sam and Tess.

garden 1 is Uma’s, so it comes off Sam and Tess. That settles it: Tess is in garden 4.

garden 4 is Tess’s, so it comes off Sam. That settles it: Sam is in garden 2.

Clue 6, “The one by the wicker gate is in a lower-numbered garden than the lilies grower”: wicker comes off Sam and Tess; lilies comes off Uma. That settles it: Uma’s flower is asters and Tess’s gate is pine.

Clue 7, “The lilies grower is the one by the willow gate”: willow comes off Uma. That settles it: Sam’s flower is lilies and Sam’s gate is willow.

Round 3

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

Pine is Tess’s, so it comes off Uma. That settles it: Uma’s gate is wicker.

The answer

Previous: Deduce #52 (Mon, Oct 5)

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.