SUNDIAL GARDEN
A day held in a small garden

A little shade can be a gift

Give every tree
its moment.

Six miniature trees, each with its own appetite for light. Arrange them around the ponds and watch their shadows change the whole garden as the sun turns.

Trees planted
Saplings remaining
Ideal light
Layout score · provisional

The garden plan

Practice garden

Click an empty bed to preview it, then choose a sapling. The sun-view buttons inspect the same layout at different hours; they do not advance play.

Pale beds are sunlit; dark beds are shaded. Dashed tree = selected preview. ≈ pond, unavailable for planting. The diagram includes the preview tree when the selection is legal.

The sunlight is known. Choose a home for each tree, and leave room for helpful shade.

Every tree’s day

No hidden weather

These readings use the planted garden. A later tree may change an earlier tree’s light and score. The exact preview below the plan names every change.

How the shadow model works
  • Sun from the east casts shadows west. Sun from north casts south; south casts north; west casts east.
  • A height 1/2/3 tree shades exactly the next 1/2/3 cells in that direction, stopping at the edge. No diagonal shadows.
  • Shadows pass across ponds and through other trees. Overlapping shadows count only once. Even a shaded tree casts its full shadow.
  • A tree is shaded when its cell is covered by another tree’s shadow. Its own height does not protect it. This is a simple board-game shadow rule, not a physical simulation.
  • Sunlight hours are the sum of the printed snapshot weights where that tree is sunlit. All three snapshots are evaluated together; planting never advances the sun.

Plant by command

Six decisions, one layout

plant maple B2 · plant cedar C3
Free: preview plant birch A2, state, map, moves, sun, help. Coordinates are column letter then row number.

Complete public text state
Legal placements with exact layout previews


Light in the right measure
  • Plant two maples, two birches and two cedars. Their heights are 1/2/3 and their preferred sunlight totals are 1/2/3 hours respectively.
  • The day has three public snapshots totaling four hours. The middle snapshot counts for two hours; the others for one each.
  • Each planted tree scores 24 − 6 × |actual hours − preferred hours|. A perfect fit earns 24. Count the final six trees once; no score accumulates from earlier layouts.
  • The live score is provisional. A new tree can improve or reduce earlier trees’ scores; the preview shows the exact net change.
  • The sixth placement ends the garden automatically. All three gardens can reach 144 points, with all six trees at their preferred light.
  • There are twelve beds for six trees, so legal play cannot run out of space. No moving planted trees, undo, early finish, timer, hidden information or random weather.
Gardener’s notebook