Aries Six Pack #4

Aries Six Pack #4 is now available! 

The decision to shift away from weekly puzzles at the end of 2024 was not an easy one. There was risk involved in releasing Rows Gardens on a less-frequent basis. But Aries Rows Garden fans are a loyal group of dedicated solvers. Your support has made each Six Pack a success and has provided the kind of support that will keep Aries Rows Gardens coming in 2026 and beyond.

By now, you probably know the drill, but just in case you are new here: Six Pack #4 includes six never-before-published Rows Gardens in PDF form in the difficulty level of your choice, a set of solutions, and RGZ files for digital solving. The PDF layout is exactly the same as it has been since 2019, so long-time solvers will be very familiar with how these puzzles look as well as how they solve. In order to maintain continuity with the overall Aries Rows Garden series, the puzzles in this pack are officially classified as Year 12, Puzzles 19 through 24.

Order Six Pack #4 for just $5 using the Paypal applet below. Each of the previous Six Packs from this year are also available using the same applet, as well as the Full 2025 Bundle of all four Six Packs for $20! If you'd like to discuss payment options other than Paypal, just send me an email.  

As mentioned above, these Six Packs will continue next year, with the first Six Pack of 2026 scheduled for a March release. Stay tuned for more details. A hearty "thank you" to all who support Aries Rows Garden and has made this project a success for twelve years strong!  

Please note: All orders are fulfilled manually. While the vast majority of purchases are fulfilled in under an hour, please allow up to 8 hours to receive an email with the puzzles that you purchased. Your patience is appreciated!

2025 Aries Rows Garden Six Packs

#4 - Winter 2025 $5.00 USD #3 - Fall 2025 $5.00 USD #2 - Summer 2025 $5.00 USD #1 - Spring 2025 $5.00 USD FULL 2025 BUNDLE (ALL 4 SIX PACKS) $20.00 USD

PDF Difficulty Level

Hardest Harder Easier Easiest

Aries Cryptic #36 - "Christmas Acrosses"

Aries Cryptic #36 - "Christmas Acrosses" - PUZ | PDF | PDF (Grayscale) | Solution (PDF) | Intro to Cryptics (PDF)

Back this month with a cryptic! I didn't realize it's been nearly two years since the last cryptic that I posted here. I have something of a love-hate relationship with cryptics, so it's a format that's probably best that I only do sporadically. This one is a scaled-down 11x11 block cryptic. I had a couple of Christmas-related cryptic angles that I wanted to use and with the smaller grid size it was nice to be able to get all the Across clues to feature some surface sense related to the holiday. There are PUZ and PDF options above, and an applet for online solving below. As always, hope you enjoy!

On the Rows Garden front, the fourth and final Six Pack is on deck for a December 26 release, so stop by very soon to purchase!

Happy solving!

Created by Andrew J. Ries with the crossword puzzle creator from Amuse Labs

Twists & Turns #13

Twists & Turns #13 - Harder (PDF) | Standard (PDF) | Standard (JPZ) | Solution (PDF)

Back with the annual Thanksgiving Day T&T! Enjoy this puzzle sometime in between the turkey, the football, and the inevitable food coma-induced nap. There are two difficulty levels offered in the print-and-solve PDF options, and a Standard-difficulty JPZ version for digital solving. To solve online, first download the JPZ and then head over to Crossword Nexus to upload and solve. Happy solving!

On the Rows Garden front, the fourth Six Pack this year is in progress and in line for a December release, so stay tuned! If you haven't already, get your hands on any of the previous Six Packs this year, or any of the archived puzzles dating back to 2014 at the Rows Garden Archive.

Happy Thanksgiving!  

Section Eight #4 (Guest Puzzle by Roger Barkan)

Section Eight #4 - PDF (Harder) | PDF (Easier) | JPZ (Harder) | JPZ (Easier) | Solution (PDF)

I'm excited to let a guest constructor take over the reins this month! Roger Barkan has recently caught the bug that is Section Eight constructing and this puzzle is one result of Roger's dedicated efforts. We both love this format which was developed by the great Patrick Berry. Roger also wrote another of these recently published at Outside the Box, so be sure to check that out as well. 

Like the other Section Eights featured here, such as last year's S8 Puzzle Pack, there are two difficulty levels offered. The Harder version is how Section Eights are presented in the Wall Street Journal presents them, with the Ring directions and enumerations not given except for the outermost Ring. The Easier version discloses the directions and enumerations of all Rings, so do check out that version if you're new to the format. There are PDFs for print-and-play solvers as well as JPZ files for digital solving. To solve online, download the JPZ file and then head over to Crossword Nexus and upload. Either way you solve, hope you enjoy!

Good news on the Rows Garden front: Juliana Tringali Golden at Stay Golden Puzzles is launching a regular series of original RGs for sale. Juliana writes that she's planning to release a new puzzle every weekend. Like Juliana's earlier "Gardening Lesson" suite of RGs, these puzzles are top-notch quality, so scoop these puzzles up if you haven't already.  

Over here, work on the fourth Six Pack of the year is ongoing and on track for a December release. So stay tuned, and as always, happy solving!