Garden word search: flowers, tools and herbs

This garden word search walks from the flower bed to the shed: 78 words including TULIP, PEONY and DAFFODIL, RAKE, TROWEL and COMPOST, and herbs from BASIL to ROSEMARY. A 12×12 grid hides twelve. There is no app and no sign-up, nothing to click away before play, it works offline, and every letter can be reached with the keyboard.

How to play the garden word search

1. Twelve garden words hide in the grid, running across, down or diagonally, in either direction.
2. Drag from the first letter to the last, or tap both in turn.
3. A correct find is banded in colour and struck off; wrong picks are ignored.
4. Hint marks the first letter of a word you have not found.
5. Finished? New game picks twelve different garden words from the 78.

Garden word search strategy

Garden words are short. More than a third of the list has four letters (ROSE, LILY, STEM, LEAF, ROOT, SEED, BULB, MOSS, FERN, WEED, SOIL, HOSE, RAKE, SHED), and short words are the hardest to see in a busy grid. Give yourself anchors before you start sweeping.

Anchor on doubled letters

Many garden words carry a pair: the PP in POPPY, FF in DAFFODIL, SS in GRASS, MOSS and BLOSSOM, EE in SEED, TREE, WEED and GREENHOUSE, OO in ROOT and BLOOM, LL in TRELLIS. A doubled letter looks the same from both ends and rarely appears by chance, so it is the quickest way into a backwards word.

Rare letters

J belongs to JASMINE alone; V to VIOLET, LAVENDER, VINE, IVY, SHOVEL, GLOVES and HARVEST; K to RAKE, BUCKET and SPRINKLER. There is no Z, Q or X in the garden list, so any you see in the grid are fill and can be ignored.

Watch the nested names

FLOWER sits inside SUNFLOWER, ROSE inside ROSEMARY and PLANT inside PLANTER. Only one of each pair can be in a grid, so if ROSEMARY is listed, the ROSE you have found belongs to it and is not a separate find.

Words in the garden word search

The garden list has 78 words and one of the shortest averages on the site, just over five letters. It runs from BUD, IVY, POT and BEE to GREENHOUSE at ten letters.

Flowers fill the first bed: ROSE, TULIP, DAISY, LILY, ORCHID, POPPY, PANSY, VIOLET, IRIS, DAFFODIL, SUNFLOWER, LAVENDER, JASMINE, PEONY and MARIGOLD. Then come the parts of a plant (PETAL, STEM, LEAF, ROOT, SEED, BULB, SPROUT, BUD), the ground itself (SOIL, DIRT, COMPOST, MULCH), the tools (SPADE, SHOVEL, RAKE, TROWEL, HOSE, SPRINKLER, BUCKET, GLOVES) and the places (PATIO, BENCH, SHED, GREENHOUSE, TRELLIS). The visitors, BEE, WORM, SNAIL, SLUG, LADYBUG and BUTTERFLY, and six herbs, MINT, BASIL, THYME, SAGE, ROSEMARY and PARSLEY, finish the list.

Several flowers end in Y (DAISY, LILY, POPPY, PANSY, PEONY), so a Y is a useful end letter to look for. THYME has a silent H, and LADYBUG uses the American name.

Stats, hints and printables

The timer pauses when the tab is hidden, and Garden stats (played, won, win rate, best and average time) stay in this browser. The first two hints are free; once ads are enabled, more cost a short ad or a 30-second wait. Every grid has a code such as A7K3Q to replay or share, and the printable page makes garden sheets.

Plays anywhere, no app, no account

The garden grid is comfortable to play on a phone in one hand, and every letter is a labelled button for keyboards and screen readers. Tidy Puzzles runs entirely in your browser: there is no app to install, no account to create and no interstitial before you can play. After the first visit the game also works offline, because each puzzle is generated on your device from a seed. Every board can be played with the keyboard alone, on a phone or a desktop, and your stats and unfinished puzzles stay in this browser rather than on a server.