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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What beautiful cards! I want some! I’m most interested in the honey bee part of permaculture (which I really have no clue about). I seriously want to start a hive of my own one of these years.
I am so impressed with your blog and how many people get involved with your every post! I’ve only just discovered you and I love your writing style. So glad I found you. I am doing very much the same thing as you, running an urban homestead, and a business (vegetable landscaping http://www.bufco.ca) in Toronto Canada and i fancy myself quite a good Texas Hold ’em player too. I LOVE THESE PLAYING CARDS. If I don’t win a deck I’d like to purchase one (or two as a gift) Is that possible? Thanks so much and keep up the great work!!! Arlene
pick me! pick me! 😀
New to gardening and permaculture. I love the idea of working with nature’s paterns and cycles. I’ve recently been transforming my yard into an edible garden step by step. I would love to have this little treasure for inspiration, information and the random game of cards ☼
I like the idea that the longer my homestead uses permaculture practices, the less work is involved – or at least I hope that’s true! We’re just getting started…
My daughter got me more interested in the permaculture culture. Wish I had started a few decades earlier.
Wow you are so right
I am interested in any method of gardening that is advantageous to the Earth (healthy soil) and also for the gardener/grower. We must take responsibility and work/plant in harmonious ways in order to benefit ALL! These cards are very beautiful. 🙂
I think I might learn much about permaculture. These cards could help that learning. I have acres of sleeping soil, and I am hoping to stir it to life along the permaculture concepts. Mr. Wheaton did a wise thing to make this give-away possible!
The cards are gorgeous! I really want to learn more about permaculture–I’m still a beginning gardener, but want to learn more about the principles. (I just need to slow down so I can learn….)
Don’t know too much about it but like the low maintenance aspect.
Wow, those are amazing! They’ve combined my love of gardening with my weakness for art cards–I’m sunk! I do really like the concept of permaculture, especially food forests. Something about the idea of harvesting my dinner from a “wild” garden just resonates with me. These days, I just do my best to turn my apartment’s balcony into a jungle (at least according to the better half), but someday I’ll have a bit of yard to turn into one!
Stewardship of the earth…
I love that this idea of letting nature do the work she is meant to, whilst we coexist and thrive alongside, is simple yet perfect.
I’m a permaculture newbie who is just at the level of very-lazy-urban-gardner. Those cards are beautiful and will certainly teach me something if I win 🙂
I prefer working *with* the bugs and “pests” in my garden, rather than against them. It’s less tiring.
Thanks for your contribution to the future. We help by adding lobster-char to our garden soil.
I like very much the design and it is also to teach children about nature.
These cards are beautiful! I actually haven’t heard of permaculture but I’m very intrigued by the idea, especially as I am trying to work with a small space. Part of the research that I do in in climate change and every day I just see more and more ways we have to work with what we have in order to reduce harm to this wonderful planet we live on. These cards would be a great way to introduce myself and others (poker nights!) to permaculture.
I love the idea that permaculture works with what is already there and enhances more than just beauty. Using permaculture is a great way to get the best of both beauty and functionality to waste less.
I don’t really know that much about permaculture, but as I am still learning new things every year as a gardener, I’m always up for new information 🙂
I don’t know much about permaculture! But I really REALLY want to learn more!!
Most of what I have seen about Permaculture – looks pretty slick. High on the efficiency scale – which I can get behind as an engineer – as well as high on natural aesthetic – which suits my style. I love beautiful functional things – and those cards fit the bill. Please pick me!
I want to know more about what to plant together.
What’s not to love about Permaculture? It’s yet another way that we get ourselves closer to nature, from whence we come anyway; a mutually beneficial relationship.
I love anything that shows a respect for the land. Beautiful cards! Want to ‘read’ them all!
I am owner of O’ McDaniel Farms. I retired in 2012 and enjoy growing heirloom veggies of all kinds. I sell produce as all natural not organic. I would love to learn more about Permaculture. Sounds like a great thing to pass on to the grand kids.
VERY cool! I hope I win but I think I’ll be buying a set anyway. 🙂 I love the concept of permaculture and all aspects of farming working together to make it simpler with smaller amounts of inputs.
Permaculture is the road to survival. 🙂
The entire concept of planting and letting it be is what intrigues me. I am eager to expand on my knowledge of guilds and put them into practice as much as I can in my neighborhood sized yard. I have also learned a ton about zones, and have really started to put that into practice in my own garden area. It just seems so simple, and yet most of us start by planting way in the back corner of our yards, simply because that’s what people usually do.
Permaculture seems like common sense when it comes to how to garden and farm. Let nature do its thing, but help it a little for a big reward. Totally worth it. I plan to continue to learn more about this practice.
I like the interconnectedness and how permaculture is closer to the way nature works when left alone.
I’m a permaculture newbie, but I love the basic principles of balance and working with the land rather than against it. And I love that the first permaculture article I ever read was not about gardening, but about cast iron skillets. Appealing to my kitchen-y side pulled me right in! Thanks for doing this give away, the cards are amazing!
Those cards are beautiful! I only know the basics of permaculture but I love the idea of taking advantage of the massive amount of rain we get in the NW! It just makes sense. I want to try out some of that Hugelkultur next season. So excited! Thanks!
I don’t know anything about permaculture, but I find that card about the bees above absolutely fascinating. I would love to know more.
I like how permaculture is ultimately passive-gardening, letting the plants, soil, bugs, etc., do most of the work for you. Less work for me? That’s a concept I can get behind!
I’m a newbie to permaculture, so to me permaculture means something you don’t have to keep inputting into the system for it to thrive, or at least keeps it to a minimum. I guess what I like about it most is the ability to do it on so many scales. I can permaculture my backyard or society can work to permaculture our general practices. But to be honest what I like best are low water perennials, which is what I defined permaculture as until recently (primarily because they are permanent, while everything else in my garden was subject to almost certain death until i got my drip line up.)
The cards are lovely and I will certainly have to get a set!
Wow – these are stunning cards. We have 10 acres and are trying to figure out how to really work with our land instead of trying to bend it to our will. I am not familiar with permaculture, but have heard the term, and these cards make me want to learn more. By the way, you have a great blog – thanks for so generously sharing with so many strangers.
Two of my favorite things combined art and gardening. Thank you for all the knowledge you share.
‘d like to win the cards because I know nothing about them, would like to try them out, and then I want to learn all I can.
Thank you, Konnie G
I like the lack of waste. It all just flows together into one big loop of common sense that, no matter what you throw in there, just advances the process and increases your success.
The most attractive thing to me about permaculture is the long-view of gardening it takes; you invest the time in setting up these systems that function together, and out of it you get a more-or-less self-perpetuating system of growth. That’s amazing!
I really want to try hugelkulture, but we’re moving from Spokane to England next summer, so I’m having to develop my own system of nomadic homesteading. We’re looking at land to buy now, though, that we can start planting fruit and nut trees on, and start laying these systems in place, so that in ten years when we retire from the military, we’ll have a plot of land that already has some of these long-term systems in place.
First off, December 14th is my birthday and I collect playing cards — so this is super exciting to me!
I’ve been learning as much about the local sustainability of permaculture in an effort to manage this small parcel of forest land here in Southern Oregon. The idea of agriculture isn’t foreign to these lands, but the concept of self-maintaining agriculture and actually leaving the earth better than we found it — these are conversation points with almost every farmer that visits me. I hope I’m applying these concepts as effectively as I can, but I also hope I’m inspiring others around me to look a little deeper into how they work with their lands, too.
I love permaculture. I am in the middle of taking my PDC (Permaculture Design Certification). I didn’t know anything the first time I took the class, now that I have practiced the principles for a few years I am finding so much more that I didn’t know. I love the idea of designing a landscape that takes care of itself and I get to just harvest the bounty. My yard is getting there, and I am helping to put in an edible, low maintenance landscape at my church.
Perma-curious here as well. We started a HK bed (as per your recommendation) but have yet to find the right wood to fill it with, so it sits, framed and filled with yard debris until such time as we can fill it!
Love these cards, can’t wait.
I, too, am perma-curious. I haven’t implemented many of the techniques, but I love reading about the principles. I think my favorite part of permaculture is the concept of zones. No more ten-minute walks to the barn. I now keep my goats (which must be milked daily) about 50 feet from my back door. And my raised beds are thriving right outside my living room window.
I am just about to enter the permaculture arena. My goal is to transform 1-1/2 acres into a sustainable organic farm. I am starting off with water conservation and moving on to a completely recycled ecosystem. We have gardens in just need to study (and by study I mean experiment) what works best in keeping my little ecosystem running smoothly.
As for the cards. I am also a texas holdem tournament play. My goal in this arena is WSOP winner. Someday Ill have that bracelet……
These cards are a perfect pair in my world.
Thanks for all you great posts!
I am 21 years of age enrolled at Rhode Island School of Design. I study furniture design from hardwood construction to plastics and synthetic materials. I am tasked with better understanding how humans utilize, underutilize, or abuse the materials our earth offers us. This past semester I started studies in sustainable design, I started my own garden, and started reaching out to the local farming community here in Providence, RI. This coming semester I will be enrolled in elective courses in Geology and Botany, and (whene the weather gets warm) I will plant a bunch of species that are new to me in my garden. My collegues in school are often puzzled by my extracurricular effort in tending plants. They marvel at how they grow. I have feeling that at some point in the lives of youth, we forget about what the human experience on earth is about. We lose our connection to nature, on a spiritual and intellectual level. I seek to educate others. I seek to build my career in design with care and love for the earth at the core of my philosophy. Permaculture is this new and intriguing topic I discovered last summer, and I’ve chewed up a lot of internet data on it, but havent had the funds to buy an extensive text. I thirst for knowledge, and such information in playing card form will not only benefit me and my scholarship, but it will assist me in educating others about the importance of natural equilibrium with our environment.
thank you for your time,
Matthew A Menzies
What I don’t like about permaculture is that is is the privatization of ancient wisdom! It’s yet another example of cultural appropriation of knowledge from indigenous cultures from around the world. The “fathers” of modern-day permaculture are who? White Men! Courses are expensive and there are few open source texts! I know permaculture holds many valuable teachings but feel that there is an exclusivity and elitism to the movement. 🙁
There are free online permaculture classes offered by Regenerative Leadership Institute. You can’t get your official Permaculture Design Certificate without paying several hundred dollars, but the course itself is free – 100%! Videos aren’t filmed well, sound quality is poor, but slides are available and the information is there if you want it! The people that started the online courses believe that this information should be free and available to everyone…putting it up online is the first step. Hope you (and anyone else reading) finds this helpful and exciting!
Bonnie,
Be the change you want to see.
As a white guy that has worked his ass off to the point that I have given away more free information on permaculture than all other permaculture people combined, I’m hoping to see a lot more women and skin colors zoom past me.
And brace yourself for the haters. There’s a lot of them.
So, write that open source text! And provide a hundred free or cheap courses! You are welcome to promote all of your efforts, for free, at permies.com.
If you are looking for open source permaculture resources, here’s one.
https://archive.org/details/PermacultureADesignersManual_306
I love that permaculture is not just about gardening. What I mean by that is that it is a design principal that can be geared towards any number of systems, such as buildings, cities, business, education etc. I am also perma-curious, but what I have done in my garden, seen in others, and read about constantly brings me back to realizations of potential applications of zones, function stacking etc in other systems outside of growing food….It’s also pretty awesome for growing food!
I love how it’s designed to all work together. And I really WANT one of those decks! Beautiful!