Genre Spotlight 18: Gardens (Puzzles 253 and 254)

It's always surprising to see what niche puzzle types lurk in the depths of the internet.  I found Gardens tucked away in janko.at, attributed to a German puzzle designer named Uwe Wiedemann.  It's a cute type.  It combines Nurikabe with Shikaku to get a puzzle that, while not as expressive as either original genre, still has some interesting interactions.

I've modified the presentation slightly to change it from a "regions" genre to a "shading" genre.

Rules: The diagram contains small gardens, i.e. rectangular green areas separated by hedges (shaded cells). Number clues cannot be shaded, and every garden contains exactly one number equal to its area. Each 2x2 square must have at least one garden square.  Gardens may touch diagonally.

                 

Genre Spotlight 17: Haisu (Puzzles 251 and 252)

As of the time of writing, Haisu is about eight years old and has a dedicated puzz.link interface, but has yet to branch out into the general puzzle contest world (apart from a few appearances in 24HPC).  That's quite surprising!  It's a very natural idea that can lead to fiendishly difficult puzzles, so you'd think puzzle constructors would latch onto it as quickly as possible.  But maybe that difficulty has turned people off.  It certainly did for me at first.

Rules: Draw a non-intersecting path through the centers of all cells, starting from the S (start) and finishing at the G (goal). Each clued cell must be traveled through on the path’s Nth visit to the region the clue lies within, where N is the value of the clue.