Periodically there are advantages to being a blogger.
I fell in love with these stunning Permaculture Playing Cards and was about to buy myself a pack on Amazon when I remembered that I knew the guy who made them.
So I emailed Paul Wheaton, the founder of Permies.com, and said, “Hey, before I buy these gorgeous Permaculture Cards, you wouldn’t have an extra deck kicking around you’d wanna send me as a review copy? Wouldja, wouldja?”
I hear back from him: “Twelve decks will be to you on Tuesday.” (Paul is like seven feet tall and sometimes I think that makes him want to go bigger with everything he does.)
“What the hell, Paul? I mean, a huge thank you, but I don’t really need a dozen decks of cards!”
“So give some away if you want.”
And so here we are. I’m keeping two decks for myself, which leaves ten decks of Permaculture Playing Cards to give away, courtesy of Permies.com.
Perma-wha?
You’ve heard of Permaculture, surely. This work-with-nature, systems-design-approach to growing (and, according to some practitioners, life), is working its way towards mainstream.
Thanks to books like Gaia’s Garden and The Vegetable Gardener’s Guide to Permaculture and the popularly of practical, accessible techniques like hugelkultur and keyhole gardens, more and more gardeners are incorporating aspects of permaculture in their garden.
I, myself, am Perma-curious. My garden is not designed top-to-bottom according to permaculture principles but as I find out how effective the practical techniques are, I move in that direction.
And that’s where these Permaculture Playing Cards come in. The deck of cards is a whimsical way to make “bite-sized” bits of permaculture accessible to people who aren’t quite ready to commit to, say, the 500+ pages of intense study required by Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual.
The cards are stunningly beautiful. I know I keep harping on that, but for real – the artwork and design is simply inspired. The cardstock is thick and will wear well and the size is nice for holding.
Each card has something notably important to Permaculture on it: key people, techniques, plants, animal husbandry techniques and more. Surrounding the image on each card are little facts about that Permaculture concept. It’s just enough to suck you in and make you want to read your deck of cards and go on and learn more, but not so much that the cards become unusable as actual playing cards.
Oh yeah – did I mention you can actually play poker with ’em? Cool.
I think these things are great on multiple levels – as art, as education, as subtle propaganda for a better world. Highly recommended as a gift for your favorite Perma-curious or Perma-fanatic people.
Enter To Win A Deck of Permaculture Playing Cards
To enter to win one deck of Permaculture Playing Cards leave a comment on this blog post telling me what you like most about Permaculture, or (if the whole concept is a bit new to you) what about Permaculture you are most interested in learning.
Ten winners will be selected at random. Contest closes this Saturday, December 14th, at 6 pm PST so that I can mail the cards out to the winners next Monday. If you are a winner you will be notified be email. You have 24 hours to claim your prize. Sorry to be so strict but we are on a holiday timeframe here. Contest open to addresses in the United States only due to shipping. Sorry international readers.
Good luck!
Related Permaculture Stuff…
Permies.com – Huge resource for Permaculture enthusiasts. The forums are extensive, helpful and well-moderated so they stay that way. For more info on the Permaculture Playing Cards, check out this thread on Permies.
Half-Assed Hugelkultur – my post on attempting this funny-sounding Permaculture garden-bed-building technique. Foot-for-foot my hugels typically out-produce my traditional beds with watering four-six times a summer.
Permaculture Playing Cards on Amazon.com – Check out reviews, see what other people have to say.
The Vegetable Gardener’s Guide to Permaculture: Creating an Edible Ecosystem, by Christopher Shein – A fairly recent release focusing on Permaculture basics and how to apply the Permaculture concepts to a more traditional garden. I particularly recommend this book to beginning urban Permaculturists. It has great design and a modern layout.
Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, by Toby Hemenway – a slightly more technical, but still very accessible look at Permaculture at the gardener’s scale.
Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual, by Bill Mollison – for the hard core student of Permaculture. This is considered the classic text of Permaculture, but I wouldn’t personally recommend it as your first text on the subject unless you are pretty NerdCore about gardening.
All images in this post courtesy Paul Wheaton / Permies.com.
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I like (and am bewildered by) the overarching concept, that you are trying to make everything in your space work together. I’m a “dig a whole and put a plant in it” person, so I’m really having the stretch, which is good.
As I enter the senior years of life , the reminder that there is still so much to learn!! These cards are not only visually astounding , the gardening knowledge they impart in a small space is a incredible. Definitely my winter project, to learn about permaculture .
Permaculture! We recently moved onto 5 rural acres of land & have so much to learn…gardening, bees, compost, ducks,…thanks for helping us in our journey!
Having recently retired I am so enjoying being able to work in my garden. However a lot of what I plant is hit or miss my garden is not very large and I want to maximize the what I grow for the table and what I grow for the soul. This is the first time I have heard about Permaculture and would love to delve into this avenue of balancing an holistic approach to gardening..
I like that Permaculture teaches production rather than consumption.
I like how permaculture practices work together, like nature. I don’t really know much about it really, and want to learn more. I also don’t know how to play poker…
I love the way that my green, purple, and wax bean plants act like a living mulch (keeping weeds from sprouting) AND like a fertilizer for my corn, broccoli, cukes, and tomatoes. I also love watching my plants making my bees happy and my bees making my plants happy!
As a newly minted “master gardener” (what a misnomer that is!), I am presumed by non-certified gardeners to have more knowledge than I possess. I would like to have at least enough knowledge to discuss permaculture with other gardeners and possibly lobby to introduce it into the OSU Extension curriculum for MG’s,
I start the Master Gardener program next month (so excited!!). I’m surprised they don’t have a section on permaculture. 🙁
Hear, hear! This is NOT my entry. I hope that doesn’t mess things up I just want Stacy to know that I think that is wonderful. I have NOT pursued a master gardener program yet primarily because the ones I know who have finished it did not get as “rounded” an approach as I would like.
I love that the permaculture concept can be easily achieved in a regular city lot. In fact, I think that most home gardens are easier to convert to permaculture because home gardeners are not starting with large swaths of monocultures. And it just makes sense. Why reinvent the wheel. The wheel being Nature.
I think permaculture is a fascinating concept. One area I’m interested in is greywater recycling and how laundry or bath water can be reused for backyard fruit trees and other plants rather than having it run down the drain. Thanks for this post….the cards are beautiful! But I think I’d be too distracted reading the cards to be able to play poker with them!
I don’t know much about permaculture (though I know more than the average person, I’m sure), but I love the systems approach that it uses.
I like how permaculture looks at the big picture but still sweats the small stuff to make it all happen.
I like how permaculture takes care of people, in a way, that makes it make sense to take care of the earth! It really is a win, win design system. The better you set up and manage the dirt, the more and better awesome gifts are given in return. I think it kinda shows so well how the original permaculture designer, wanted us to take care of, and be taken care of by, His creation! If I win, this will probably be the Christmas gift I enjoy the most! And I will show them off to everyone!
Ohhh My Gardenesss those cards sound Perrrrfect for me…..I know Nothing about Permaculture but I have an inner knowing that I very soon will know more than I do at this moment…..I am in the process of creating gardens in my new place that I just moved to about a year ago….I am SOOOOOO interested in learning ALL that I can about ALL kinds of gardening…..What a perfect start this would be…….I would LOVE to have those cards to help guide me on my new adventure as a gardener…..Pick Me Pick Me 🙂 🙂 🙂 !! By the way I LOVE your Blogs…..you talk my language…..
Love to ALL Gardens and Garden errrrs
Peace & L0ve & Hippie Beads
I really like the notion of ‘stacking’ in Permaculture. Having multiple layers of growth use the same plot of land just seems to make sense (probably because it’s what we see in the wild!).
I’ve been drooling over these playing cards for some time now.. so, fingers crossed!
I am a perma-newbie married to a permaculture-obsessed dude who in fact, owns the Permaculture Design Manual and has his PDC and devours all things permie day and night. What I like most about permaculture, beyond the fact that it just makes a world of sense as a design system, is that it has an entire set of ethics embedded within the philosophy. Its not just about gardening, its about earth care, people care and fair share – and these are ideas I can get behind.
I took environmental studies in university, and was introduced to permaculture there. And surprizingly, permaculture was a great deal like what my grandparents had been doing on their farm for generations. I like that small scale permaculture practices in my garden help me feel connected to both the land and my grandparents.
I know what you mean! I live in Portugal, which is a small country (not part of Spain, please!) where people have traditionally survived on tiny, tiny farms, at least when compared to other countries. Almost every time I learn a “new”, awesome, intensive gardening technique that I think is totally exciting… I visit my MIL, and there it is in her garden, just as it has been for generations! Sometimes I wonder if the proto-permies all backpacked through Portugal in their youth…
*Ah, and obviously this not an entry for the giveaway, sadly… 😛
Oh wow. Playing cards, what a nifty idea!
I love that permaculture has variety built into it. Not just that it’s not about monocultures, but that the techniques also span a wide variety.
Long time gardener here that has practised my version of permaculture for years….. always in need of learning ……
Stunning and amazing work of art…..those cards….
I dabbled with hugelkultur once; I’d love to learn more and would love these cards! They’re awesome.
So I was a permaculture hater for a long time…I considered it to be “that crazy stuff my crazy husband wastes all his time watching youtube videos about.” But I gradually started getting sucked in. It was actually rocket mass heaters that got me first…nearly free heat that is environmentally friendly??? That’s something I could go with. Rain water harvest became really appealing when our water bill got ridiculous last summer. And then I took the plunge and borrowed The Permaculture Handbook from the library. I’m sold. I’m teaching my kids permaculture concepts as being the norm and the rest of society as being the wasteful crazies. 🙂 I would love the deck of permaculture cards to use alongside our decks of ABC yoga cards, Dinosaur Facts cards and all those other cards we use to get through cold winter days. These cards are beautiful and educational for me as well as them! And I’d love for them to enter our lives via my my husband’s Christmas stocking to show him that he was right after all!
I don’t know nuthin’ about permaculture, but I’m excited to learn about anything that builds the system.
I think the thing I love the most about permaculture is that the physical energy input becomes easier as the “garden” grows older. For me that’s wonderful as I’m beginning to accept that at some point my body won’t be able to keep up. With permaculture the amount of upkeep I have to do will decrease as the systems become self sustaining.
Permaculture is new to me, but these cards seem like a great way to learn a bit. They’re absolutely gorgeous!
Permaculture allows me to live fully in my little bit of land. Purposeful plantings reward me for years. A biodiverse landscape benefits my child and his community. I live my convictions. I learn and grow through these principles. I teach and make the world a little better.
Me Wanty the cards! Thank you!!!
I am still learning about permaculture but to begin I just finished two classes at our local college in Native Plant ID and Soil and Plant Nutrition! I want to be a part of conserving our planet and renewing what I use !!
I just got the Gaias Garden book and am most interested in learning about not having to weed as much!!
I’m working on it. Got rid of Roundup, got rid of grass in back yard…baby steps! I’m glad you’re around for more tips.
My favorite thing about permaculture is the idea of working WITH the way things are already going instead of AGAINST. I’m trying to apply that little tidbit to my life in general.
I’m perma-wanna and have a few spots in the garden that work, but mostly the climb seems steep from here. The cards are pretty irresistible. Thanks!
I’m most interested in learning more about the hugelkultur technique.
Cool giveaway thanks for sharing!
I like the permaculture concept of placing frequently used items closer to the house. Like the hen house- in the winter it is handy to have it closer.
Permaculture is…..necessary. And that deck is BEAUTIFUL!
Sharing this in several groups. 🙂
Permaculture is fascinating, but I’ve SOOO much to learn! I really like the combination of utility and beauty that I see in mature permaculture setups.
My favorite thing about Permaculture is that you can apply much of the philosophy to all areas of life. Small, slow, and share? Every community should start with that as a guiding mantra. Closing the system? What if that became your financial philosophy?
Thanks for the giveaway and your lovely blog!
In new to perma culture, but so excited to learn!!
The more I learn about permaculture the more interested I become. I continue to incorporate more permaculture into my own garden landscape.
What I love about permaculture is… well, it’s just too big to explain. I love that by applying the common-sense approaches, we can re-green desertified places. I love that we can design and develop a true legacy for our children, their children, and likely their children – to the third and fourth generations! I love that we can create an Eden in a relatively small place that can sustain us and help us to tread lightly on this wonderful planet that we have been blessed to live on.
What I love most – permaculture can and does work anywhere, large or small, wet or dry, warm or cold.
I like permaculture because it’s like saying to nature “okay, we can be a forest…..but it’s going to be on my terms.”
I need to learn almost everything about permaculture.
I don’t know much about permaculture but find it fascinating. I do believe that every aspect of ours lives would work better if we get back to the basics of how they are meant to be- which is what permaculture means to me right now. My parents have a farm with gardens, chickens, sheep and cows. I love heading home to the city I live in with boxes of vegetables that have never seen chemicals and meat from animals raised with dignity.
We are just starting our adventure in permaculture, the hubby is coming on board so I’m hoping to do more this spring. I’m especially looking forward to helping my medicinal gardens thrive! I love these cards!
I NEEEEED a pack! Sorry for the whine. 🙂 I’ve been interested in permaculture for a while, but it’s impossible to find some place to explain it simply. I think the cards would help me learn more without boring me to death. 🙂
I want these so much! My favorite thing about permaculture is how it all works together to actually reduce what I need to do. It actually makes things easier. How awesome is that?
Sustainable, healthy, sharing. Three things I love best about Permaculture!
So many entries/comments but I’m tossing the dice and saying I try on my farm and want to learn even more!
I am fairly new to the permaculture concept, but I like sustainability and the accessibility of it.
I’d like to see what principles I’m already using in my organic garden and what new things I could learn to expand and improve.
These would be awesome to play with the kids. They’re so enticing, the visual part of the cards and there’s plenty of info on them. Might even have to rope some adults in… they might learn something 😉
Beautiful cards! It doesn’t matter how how you grow your food, just grow some!
I like how it uses minimal offsite inputs, and long-term can allow you to be a lazy gardener (fewer pests, less planting as it relies more heavily on perennials, etc). 🙂
I’m most interested in how to start small and expand; right now I just read everything and want to do EVERYTHING, which is just too much to take on at once. I need some sort of program with manageable stages.
My husband mentioned permaculture after the garden was started!!! I thought it might be to difficult for me to handle but I would love to try it, I have an small aquaponics & Im planning to research this. The cards would go a long way getting me started on researching.
O my goodness – these are in my Amazon cart as I type! I would love to win them 🙂