FREE RG - December 2023

FREE RG December 2023 - PDF: Hardest  | Harder | Easier | Easiest | Solution | RGZ 

It's been a while since I've posted a free Rows Garden, so what the hey. See above for the PDFs as well as an RGZ file for digital solving. As always, happy solving!

Year 10 of Aries Rows Garden just wrapped up but a reminder that subscriptions are always open. Year 11 is a rare 53-Tuesday year so subscribers will get an extra puzzle in 2024. I've also updated the monthly bundles through December 2023 as well as the archive, including the 2023 Second Half puzzles and the full 2014-2023 bundle. 

Here's to a great 2024!

Twists & Turns #9

Twists & Turns #9 - Standard (PDF) | Harder (PDF) | Standard (JPZ) | Solution (PDF)

Happy Thanksgiving, and keeping with the tradition, here's the annual T-Day Twists & Turns puzzle! As usual, there's a Standard and Harder PDF versions as well as a JPZ file in Standard difficulty only for digital solving. To solve digitally, first download the above file and then head over to Crossword Nexus and upload the file. Hope you enjoy! If you're still hungry for more T&Ts, be sure to check out the T&T puzzle pack that was released last year. 

Check back next week for the November bundle of the Aries Rows Garden puzzles. [11/30/2023 UPDATE: The November bundle is now posted!] A friendly reminder that subscriptions are always open if you don't want to wait for the monthly bundles.

Happy solving!

-Andrew 

Double or Nothing #5

Double or Nothing #5 - PDF | PDF (Grayscale) | Solution (PDF)

Back with another Double or Nothing puzzle! For the uninitiated, this is another of the many great formats developed by Patrick Berry. I tried a different grid layout than I've attempted in the past with these, including stacked grid-spanners and a higher number of odd-squared entries, which requires the use of longer entries in order to satisfy the rule of needing at least half of the squares used in each entry. PDF only for this format. Hope you enjoy!

One more puzzle to go this month for Aries Rows Garden, which is always open for subscriptions. Check back next week to scoop up the October monthly bundle once that's available. 11/1 UPDATE: The October bundle is now available! 

Happy solving!    

Section Eight #1

Section Eight #1 - Easier (PDF) | Harder (PDF) | Solution (PDF)

Back this month with a Section Eight puzzle! This is another format developed by the great Patrick Berry, and it might be the most difficult puzzle type that Patrick has ingeniously invented. It turns out that not only are these a great challenge to solve - it probably was the most difficult format I've tried my hand at writing. It took three separate attempts at a grid, with three separate seed entries, before I had success with this one. I would describe it as a brain-busting but ultimately gratifying writing experience, and I hope that you enjoy this challenge as well.

Don't say I didn't warn you! The puzzle is PDF only, and I've got an Easier and a Harder version for you to choose. The Easier version discloses the direction of all Rings and provides enumerations for each answer. The Harder version only discloses the direction and enumerations for Ring 1. The Harder version is the difficulty level that is offered when Patrick writes a Section Eight for the Wall Street Journal. The Easier version is still plenty challenging, and it would be the recommended version for those who haven't tried this format before. 

Also, the September monthly bundle for Aries Rows Garden is also available. And a reminder that a Rows Garden subscription is always available if you don't want to wait for the monthly bundles. 

Happy solving!

Marching Bands #6

Aries Marching Bands #6 - PDF | JPZ | Solution (PDF)

Back with another Marching Bands puzzle! There's a PDF as well as a JPZ file included; to solve digitally, download the JPZ and then head over to Crossword Nexus and upload the file. Either way you solve, hope you enjoy!

The August bundle for Aries Rows Gardens has been posted. Or if you don't want to wait for the monthly bundles, you can always subscribe to get the puzzles sent straight to your email every week. 

Happy solving!

Spiral #3

Spiral #3 - PDF (Easier) | PDF (Harder) | JPZ (Easier) | SOLUTION 

Back this month with another Spiral puzzle! There are two PDFs included - according to testers, the Harder version played about as twice as long as they typically solve a Spiral in the New York Times, which only offers Spirals in the difficulty presented here as Easier. So if you're looking for a more serious challenge, give the Harder version a try. If you like how Spirals are presented in the Times, go ahead and solve the Easier version. There's also a JPZ file included which only offers the puzzle in the Easier difficulty. Whichever way you choose to solve, hope you enjoy!

The July monthly bundle for Aries Rows Garden has been posted. A reminder that a subscription for Aries Rows Garden is always available if you'd rather not wait for the monthly bundles.

Happy solving! 

Twists & Turns #8

Twists & Turns #8 - Standard (PDF) | Harder (PDF) | Solution (PDF) | JPZ

Back this month with another Twists & Turns puzzle! As is usual there are PDFs offered in both Standard and Harder difficulty levels. The JPZ is only available in the Standard difficulty - to access, first download the JPZ, then head over to Crossword Nexus and upload the file to solve digitally. If you like Twists & Turns and didn't pick up the T&T puzzle pack when it was released last year, be sure to rectify that and scoop up a copy today! 

In Rows Garden news, the June bundle has been posted, as well as the 2023 First Half bundle. If you don't want to wait for the bundles, be sure to subscribe today to get the puzzles straight to your inbox every Tuesday morning. 

Happy solving!

Aries Cryptic #34 - "Bar Exam"

 Aries Cryptic #34 - "Bar Exam" - PUZ | PDF | PDF (Grayscale) | Solution (PDF)

Here's a smallish cryptic puzzle for your enjoyment! It's 11x11 and features a common theme in the clues. Hopefully you enjoy the challenge!

One more Rows Garden to go in May so check back next week for the monthly bundle. [5/31 UPDATE: The May bundle is now posted!] A reminder that subscriptions are always available if you don't want to wait for the bundles.

Cheers!

-Andrew 

Acrostic #2

Aries Acrostic #2 - PDF | JPZ | Solution (PDF)

Back with another Acrostic puzzle! There's a PDF as well as a JPZ; to solve digitally, download the JPZ file and then head over to the Crossword Nexus solver and upload the puzzle there. Either way you solve, hope you enjoy!

The April bundle for Aries Rows Garden has been posted. And a reminder - a Rows Garden subscription is always available if you'd rather not wait for the monthly bundles.

Happy solving!

Double or Nothing #4

 Double or Nothing #4 - PDF | PDF (Grayscale) | Solution (PDF)

Here's another Double or Nothing puzzle. These puzzles are always fun to create and I especially savor the opportunity to fit in entries like 25- and 42-Across. PDF only for this puzzle. Hope you enjoy!

The monthly bundles have been updated through March, so check that out if you're not already subscribing to Aries Rows Garden. Or, even better, you can subscribe to Aries Rows Garden to get a puzzle emailed to you each week.

Good luck to all competitors at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament this weekend! And in other media, I got a quote in this recent Oregonian article on crosswords - give it a read if you're interested.

Happy solving!

Marching Bands #5

Marching Bands #5  - PDF | JPZ | Solution (PDF)

Here's this month's variety puzzle - it's another Marching Bands puzzle. There's a PDF and a JPZ file attached - to solve the JPZ, first download the file then head over to Crossword Nexus and upload the file. 

Check back next week for the February monthly bundle for Aries Rows Garden. 3/1 UPDATE: The February monthly bundle is now posted. A reminder that subscriptions are always open if you don't want to wait for the monthly bundles!

Happy solving!

Press Boxes

 Press Boxes - PDF | Solution PDF

Back with the first variety puzzle of 2023! I finally tried my hand at one of these "Boxes" puzzles - a format I've also seen under the "Packing Crates" name. To my knowledge (do correct me if I'm wrong) this is another puzzle format developed by the masterful Patrick Berry. This is one of my favorite variety formats out there to solve - particularly those in which Patrick seeds the grid with a bonus answer made from the letters not used in Boxes entries, as is the case with this puzzle, "Press Boxes." I always was a bit intimidated by the format which is why I didn't try writing one for a long time. This puzzle definitely was a challenge to write but not brain-numbingly challenging, so I hope to return to the format in the future. PDF only for this format. Hope you enjoy!

The next monthly bundle for Aries Rows Garden will be available next week - January is a five-Tuesday month so there's still another puzzle to go. 2/7 UPDATE: The January Rows Garden bundle is now available! Of course, if you don't want to wait to solve these Rows Gardens, you can always subscribe to receive them on a weekly basis, delivered straight to your inbox. 

Happy solving!

Snowflake #2

Snowflake #2 - PDF | Solution (PDF) 

Back with another Snowflake puzzle! This Hex-inspired variety puzzle is a good one to run this time of year. Instructions included in the PDF - no digital solving capabilities for this format, unfortunately. Happy solving!

Monthly bundles have been posted through December, and 2022 Second Half bundles have been added to the archive for both Aries Rows Garden and Aries Freestyle. It was bittersweet to conclude the Aries Freestyle series this week; here's to five great years of freestyle crosswords! Aries Rows Garden is still going strong however, kicking off its TENTH year next week. Subscriptions are always open so get on it if you haven't already.

Happy New Year!

-Andrew

Twists & Turns #7

Twists & Turns #7 - Standard (PDF) | Harder (PDF) | Standard (JPZ) | Solution (PDF)

Back with another Twists & Turns puzzle! Didn't realize the last freebie T&T on this site was *last* Thanksgiving, so I suppose we're making T&Ts a Turkey Day tradition, along with midday naps and watching that one Cheers episode with the food fight. You know the drill by now - the Harder version lists the Twists clues alphabetically, and a digital version is only available in the Standard version. To solve online, first download the file above, then head over to the Crossword Nexus solver and open the file there. 

If you're digging these T&Ts you should scoop up the T&T puzzle pack that was released this summer - in fact, I'm offering it at the discounted rate of $10 until the end of the year. Buy it now!

Still one more puzzle to go this month for Aries Rows Garden and Aries Freestyle, so check back soon for the November monthly bundles. UPDATE: November bundles are now posted - apologies for the delay! 

Happy solving, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Acrostic #1

Aries Acrostic #1 - PDF | JPZ | Solution (PDF)

This month I'm excited to offer my first foray into acrostics! I've started to really enjoy solving acrostics over the last year or so, mainly from the ones that Mike Shenk writes for the Wall Street Journal. I remember hearing a while ago that Henry Rathvon and Emily Cox's method of constructing an acrostic involved first spelling out the quote in Scrabble tiles, and then creating the word list shuffling all those tiles around. It sounded like fun, so I tried that approach here as well, and, man ... I *really* enjoyed that challenge. It was one of the more pleasantly addicting word exercises I've done in a while, and I look forward to doing it again. 

There's a PDF to print and solve on paper and there's also a JPZ file for digital solving. To solve digitally, first download the JPZ and then head over to Crossword Nexus and upload the file. I admit I must be one of the few solvers who prefers solving acrostics on paper, but I definitely see the benefits of solving an acrostic on a computer, as the letter-transfer process is made much more convenient. Either way you solve, hope you enjoy!

October bundles have been posted for both Aries Rows Garden and Aries Freestyle. And if you haven't gotten your copy of the Twists & Turns puzzle pack, do it now! 

Marching Bands #4

Aries Marching Bands #4 - PDF | JPZ | Solution (PDF)

Back with another Marching Bands puzzle! There's a PDF and a JPZ file available; to solve digitally, first download the JPZ file, then head over to Crossword Nexus, upload the file and solve away! As always, hope you enjoy!

The monthly bundles for Aries Rows Garden and Aries Freestyle have been updated through September, so check those out if you're interested in a taste of what you'd get as a subscriber. 

Happy solving!

Labyrinth #1

Labyrinth #1 - PDF | JPZ | Solution PDF

For this month's variety puzzle I tried my hand at a Labyrinth puzzle. This is one of the many formats developed by the great Mike Shenk. These puzzles are featured every few months at the Wall Street Journal as a part of their Saturday variety puzzle offerings. Mike seems to clue these puzzles on the tougher side so I tried to do the same here. There's a PDF as well as a JPZ - for the JPZ file, download the file and then open it over at the Crossword Nexus solver. Hope you enjoy! 

Check back later in the month for the Aries Rows Garden and Aries Freestyle monthly bundles, or go straight to the source with a weekly subscription. 8/31/22 UPDATE: Monthly bundles are now posted! I'm getting the variety puzzle out a little earlier than usual this month as I'll be vacationing next week in my old upper Midwest stomping grounds - my first trip up there in several years.

I've been hearing good things from solvers about the Twists & Turns puzzle pack - be sure to purchase yours if you haven't already!

Happy puzzling!

Double or Nothing #3

Double or Nothing #3 - PDF | PDF (Grayscale) | Solution

Here's another Double or Nothing puzzle for your variety puzzle enjoyment! This Patrick Berry-developed format is a really fun one to write in my experience. While Patrick's Double or Nothing puzzles are built around a multi-part quip, I've preferred to seed one of these puzzles with an extra-long answer that wouldn't be possible to use in a standard crossword grid - in this puzzle, 36-Across. And I liked getting the opportunity to get things like 1-Across, 17-Across, and 42-Across in the grid as well. Hope you enjoy!

The July monthly bundles have been posted, so if you'd like a small taste of what you'd get as a subscriber, be sure to check out those monthly bundles. For bigger bites of subscription puzzles, the 2022 First Half bundles for Aries Rows Garden and Aries Freestyle are also available. 

And there's still time to pre-order the upcoming Twists & Turns puzzle pack! The pre-order discount runs through this Sunday, July 31st. The official release is August 1st, and I'm very excited with how this pack has come together. Get in on the fun! 

Happy solving, 

Andrew 

Now Available for Pre-Order: Twists & Turns Puzzle Pack

I'm very excited to announce the upcoming release of a new puzzle pack, titled Twists & Turns! This puzzle pack features a bunch of brand-new T&T puzzles written by yours truly. Twists & Turns will be officially released August 1st, 2022 - and there's a pre-order special now available through the end of July. Click here for more details and to pre-order! 

Diagramless #3

Diagramless #3 - PUZ | PDF | PDF (Solution) 

Back with another diagramless puzzle! For paper solvers, there's a PDF - keep in mind that there are solving square and symmetry hints on pages 2 and 3, so be sure to print only page 1 if you're looking to save paper. For digital solvers you can download the PUZ file, then go to squares.io and upload the PUZ file and solve in their in-browser applet.  There are also the downloadable programs Diagnil and Xword that also allow for digital diagramless solving. Whatever way you solve, hope you enjoy!

The Monthly Bundles have been updated through June. In addition, the 2022 First Half bundles for both Aries Rows Garden and Aries Freestyle are now available. If you're not a subscriber yet but want a taste of what you'd get as a subscriber, be sure to check out these bundles. 

Stay tuned in the next few weeks for an announcement about a new puzzle project!