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 am most fascinated by the concept of permaculture beekeeping, which I didn’t know existed until just now. I’ve been wanting to start beekeeping, so now I will have to look into this. Thanks!
These cards are so beautiful! I would find a way to frame them and use them as art.
I love gardening–but have not done much study on this aspect of it. I certainly will start reading about it now. I do have neighbors who incorporate this into their lives and environment. I was given a tour of their property and was fascinated by all they are doing, and would like to take steps in that direction myself.
Those cards look so cool. I have been hearing about permaculture but I don’t really know enough about it. I would like to know if this would help conserve water in a high desert environment.
Brand spanking new to permaculture…. but I would love to learn about urban beekeeping.
OMG I’ve been lusting after these cards!!!!!!!!!!! What I love most about permaculture is the way it is simultaneously so HUGE (encompasses everything we do, how we live, think, design, interact, build communities, homes, lifestyles, eat, drink…) and, at the same time, is so SIMPLE (reading anything about permaculture or seeing projects people have implemented makes me think ‘hm… yeah, of course… that makes perfect sense’). I would love to be able to pry myself off the farm long enough to go and take an intensive course, but in the meantime, a deck of these beautiful cards would tide me over… Just saying. Oh, my fingers are criss-crossed double crossed!
And just a ps to all that, I have a US postal address so please don’t feel that IF you happen to pluck my entry from the pile that you need to immediately eliminate me because I live in Canada!
Hi,
First of all, I love the design of the cards, which is how I even found your blog! I do know very little– almost nothing about permaculture, but what I am in touch with is how I think that we are one with the earth, which I think is a little bit of what permaculture is about! I am an artist, and pretty into what is here and now… I want to learn more.
I’ve been long frustrated at how modern industrial agriculture (I refuse to call it “conventional”) flies in the face of nature. I want to be attached to the land, not fighting it, so permaculture really appeals to me.
Those cards are stunning!
I’m still a permaculture newbie, but I love the idea of using my grey water to keep things green here (I do live in the desert, after all). And I’m obsessed with the idea of having a bee hive, even though the idea kind of scares me.
I love how permaculture takes a more holistic approach, but I am fairly new to it so am eager to learn more through these cards!
What do I like best about permaculture? I like how, when I get the right thing in the right place, that part of the garden grows just a little bigger and brighter and sometimes I see birds or bugs that hadn’t been there before.
I love that the more I introduce permaculture ideas into my urban backyard, the more beneficial insects and birds I attract to the evolving ecosystem. So exciting!!
I need to learn anything I can about permaculture. Have a basic idea but little training in how to get everything to work together. Those cards are suitable for framing!
I love the “bugs, weeds, funguses and microorganisms” card. Truer advice has never been written.
I think it is high time people embrace the clover and dandelions throughout their grasses instead of looking to have a lawn that resembles a golf course. The ideas within permaculture can assist with that.
Aren’t those beautiful permies! I love permaculture because it’s practical and efficient – two of my middle names!
This is something i have always wanted to learn about, never had the time before but now i am learning new things, I have been learning about wild edibles, seed saving, and would love to learn about permaculture, funny at my age becoming a student again. thank you
Oh I just am amazed at how wonderful and complex our world is. Can’t wait to curl up with a book or two and start learning.
Wow these are beautiful and fascinating! My favorite thing about permaculture, off the top of my head, is the “circle of life” nature about it – nothing is wasted. Thanks for sharing your cards!
I am semi-new to gardening…we did straw bale gardening last year and have a ton of veggies from it. Except beans…beans did poorly… We are trying our hand at hugelkultur next spring (we assembled a raised bed/hugrlkultur bedv this fall) I can’t wait!
I’m an organic gardener and my local beekeeper has 4 hives on my property. I’m interested in ways permaculture can help improve my gardening and in finding out how it can help the hives thrive. (Pick me, pick me!)
When I had my farm … it was glorious! landscaping with edible trees and shrubs, mason bee hives, herbs and veggies everywhere! The very last tomato was always the biggest thanksgiving treat, and then there was the critters …
What do I like about permaculture? Everything. It’s science, art, life, death, feeding your soul and your body. It’s a life-long process of learning, trying new things, successes and failures. There’s physical labor that leaves you so exhausted you can barely eat supper and go to bed as soon as it is dark. There’s getting up before the sun to make sure you’re hens are able to get the worm.
We are still in the process of getting the home garden off the ground but permaculture is part of the thinking. Working with the land we’ve got than transform it to something it shouldnt be. Im trying to talk the hubby into two hives at one point – Im pretty sure I could tuck one in the front yard surrounded by plants and people wouldnt notice… The garden needs to be in first so the bees have food.
What I love most about Permaculture as I explore the concept over the past few months is the paradigm shift from being a dependent consumer to a producer– I am also Perma-curious like you Erica and I realize that the principles of Permaculture allows all of us to become more resilient as energy sources dwindle and shift. I love these playing cards- how beautiful and what a fun educational tool.
We have just made our first attempt at creating a hugelkultur bed in an effort to control the water flow on our property. Hiring a bobcat excavator, we dug a huge ditch and piled the soil beside. Now we have been trying to create a natural slope from the depths of the trench to the height of the bank. When spring comes, we will be planting our veggies in it and perhaps some blueberry bushes. Hopefully this deck of cards will fill our heads with many more crazy permaculture ideas to try! Pick me!
I am interested in learning everything about anything to do with gardening, living healthy, being earth friendly, etc. These cards are beautiful and I would love a deck to educate and inspire me and my family.
I tried a poly culture bed this summer as described in Gaia’s Garden and was thrilled with the results.
I appreciate that Permaculture is a design philosophy first which allows one to apply it to many domains, agriculture being the most known but increasingly folks are applying the principles to neighborhood/city planning, business networks, etc…
Permaculture is a new concept to me. But lately I’ve been interested in bee’s and I’ve been trying to learn more. These cards are beautiful, thanks for the giveaway!
don’t know much about permaculture. but my husband (who is a master gardner) and I would love to learn about it.
I’m trying to incorporate permaculture with urban farming. Lots of fun.
I am curious about permaculture because I live in an semi-arid region, and would love to find a good technique to not only overcome clay-like desert soil, but a way to use less water. Of course, having a garden technique that requires less on-going work would be a terrific boon. I’d like to try integrating it into my raised garden beds.
I’ve just recently been reading about permaculture ideas. I really like the info on the bee card above, I’d like to try bees in a few years! This year is for chickens!!! =]
I like the idea of permaculture and would love to learn more! The cards look amazing.
These are genius and absolutely beautiful! As for permaculture, well it just makes sense!
When I was in a permaculture course I got totally turned on to how the soil is ALIVE!
I just finished my Permaculture Design Course at Geoff Lawton’s farm in Australia, and WOW, I have left an inspired women.
The thing I love the best about Permaculture is the idea of imitating natural systems. Nature is beautiful and bountiful on its own, so if we humans are to intervene we should study and learn from the millions of years of co-evolution our planet has already undergone.
It really makes the widespread idea of clear cutting, sowing mono-cropped fields, and dumping chemicals all over everything seem quite silly!
Stunning! (Don’t pick me, I live in France)
I am interested in the balanced idea. Nature works as intended when in balance. I think this has a lot to offer us in our lives. Love the cards.
With a little planning permaculture design saves you time and money. The plants contribute to each other.
Those are beautiful cards! I’ve always been uneasy with the monocultures and pesticides of conventional gardening. This is the first I’ve heard of permaculture and the idea of food forests sounds very interesting–I’ll have to look into it further.
I have been slowly working permaculture into my garden. We have had great success with our hugelkultur bed and I want to learn more. A gorgeous deck of cards and a fun way to learn! Thanks for sharing the cards because now I have a super gift idea for a friend of mine, too.
The thing I keep coming back to, is that in a permaculture food Forrest you plant what the deer like to eat on the fringes and what you like to eat towards the center and it all kinda works without fences. I like the whole system aspect of it even though it feels like far more than I could ever hold onto.
Wow, I would love to give a set to my sis, she has enough property for a big garden, which she is slowly working on. I think she would find permaculture totally cool, if she doesn’t already….when I one day have space for a veggie garden, I think permaculture is the way to go!
I am just being introduced to Permaculture, just this year discovered Paul’s site and love it. So much information but not rocket science. That’s what I like, it makes sense and its really simple when you think about it. I find I have been a permie all along in some areas of our farm.
I recently moved out of my 25-year home into a smaller house next door. In the years I lived at the other house, I planted, dug up and re-planted, moving plants around like they were furniture until I got them where they thrived and helped other plants thrive. I had never even heard of permaculture. When I sold that house, the young adult son of the new owners stood with me on the deck and looked over the yard. “I’m totally into permaculture,” he said, “and I love what you have done here.” Who knew? (Oh, and I am now starting over with more knowledge aforehand.”
Knowledge is powerful…I would really love to have a set of these cards. It’s a beautiful reminder how to interact with nature. I wish everyone could have a deck.
Our society has become so single purpose. We have a place for one thing and a different place for another thing. I love the way permaculture blows that all a way and gets back to actual life. We pay attention to what is here rather than finding a place for what we want to put somewhere.
The cards are gorgeous! Thank you so much for sharing them in this way! 🙂
I found Paul’s permie website through a post on Hugelkultur. I am wanting to try this & am no on my way to your post “half-assed hugelkultur — sounds like a good starting point 🙂 I love these cards, but was not wanting to buy 12 packs in the kickstarter campaign. Good to know they are available on Amazon.
Oooh these would be be a perfect gift for my “partner in grime”. Thanks for sharing. Next stop-Amazon.
I am intrigued by soil. I would like to learn more about it – how to enrich it, how to maintain it….. so much to learn!