How to play / Garden Solitaire
How to play Garden Solitaire
If you have ever laid out a deck of cards on a kitchen table and tried to sort it into four tidy piles, you already know the heart of this game. Garden Solitaire is the classic version called Klondike, with big cards, a daily deal that can always be won, and an undo button that never runs out.
The goal: four piles from ace to king
You play with one ordinary deck of 52 cards. At the top are four empty spaces, one for each suit. Move every card up into them in order, ace first and king last, and the deal is won.
Below those spaces sit seven columns of cards. The first holds one card, the second two, and so on up to seven. Only the bottom card of each column is face up. The leftover cards form the deck.
Stacking cards down the columns
On the table you build downward, alternating colours. A red 7 can take a black 6. A black 6 can take a red 5. Whenever you move the face-up card from the bottom of a column, the card hiding behind it turns over, and that is usually how you find new moves.
- You can pick up a whole stack of face-up cards at once, as long as you grab the top card of the stack and it fits on its new home.
- Only a king can go into an empty column.
- A card on a top pile can come back down onto a column if it fits there.
Moving a card with a tap or a drag
You have two ways to move. Touching a card once sends it to the best place it can go: a pile at the top first, then a column that already has cards, then an empty column. Or you can drag the card, or a whole stack, to where you want it. A card with nowhere to go gives a little shake.
Touching the deck turns over new cards into a spare pile beside it, and only the top card of that pile can be played. When the deck runs out, touching it again turns the spare pile back over, as many times as you like. On a computer, the space bar draws too, and the Z key undoes.
One card or three from the deck
In the menu, a setting called Draw lets you choose one card or three at a time. One card is gentler. Three is the traditional, harder way: the cards fan out, but only the top one can be played.
Undo, Hint and Finish
Undo takes back your last move, and you can press it as many times as you wish. Undoing adds one to the move counter. Hint lights up one suggested move and Tiny says what to try. It looks first for a card to send to the top, then for a move that turns over a hidden card, and last for the deck.
Once every card on the table is face up and the deck and spare pile are empty, a Finish button appears. Press it and the rest fly up on their own.
The daily deal, practice deals and your garden path
There is one deal a day, the same for everyone, and each one has been checked so that it can be won. Winning it plants a flower on your garden path, opened from the button at the top, where your days in a row also show. Ducklings come out to celebrate at 3, 7, 14, 30, 50, 100, 200 and 365 days. Garden Solitaire has no streak protection, so a missed day starts the count over.
When you win, you see your time and your number of moves. The game remembers your best daily result, and you can share it or post it to the day's board. New practice deal in the menu gives extra games, which add to a count of wins instead of a streak. Restart this deal starts over.
Tips from how the cards behave
- Uncover hidden cards early. A column with many face-down cards holds cards you cannot plan around yet.
- Empty a column only when a king is ready for it.
Garden Solitaire questions answered
Can I get stuck with a deal that cannot be won?
Not on the daily deal or the proven practice deals. Each has been shown to have a winning line.
When does the clock start, and does it keep running if I switch away?
It starts with your first move, and it only counts while the game is on screen.
What is the lesson on my first deal?
A short practice table of four taps that shows how an ace goes up, how a 6 lands on a red 7, and how the deck works. You can skip it.
More games like Garden Solitaire
- How to play Pond Pairs: another calm game of clearing a pile, with a daily puzzle.
- How to play Stepword: a daily word game with a new puzzle every day.
- How to play Pond Sort: a word solitaire by the duck pond, with a new deal every day.