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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We are new to permaculture, at 55 we are in the proses of buying land for the first time! We will be sharing the land with our daughter and granddaughter, and learning together. Very excited to learn and pass it on to the next generation.
I would love to have these cards what a great introduction to learning about permiculture for me for my partner and family and friends – as we do grow vegetables and many plants … it would be a breeze to introduce the concept of permaculture to them with these cards as they are so attractive and easy to read and will be a fabulous precursor for myself and everyone around me wanting to know more and thats got to be a positive and what a fantastic idea to incorporate all this with playing cards , whilst sharing the fun we can also share our discoveries. Fantastic cards. thank you.
I don’t know about Permaculture, but am an avid gardener; vegetable, flowers, brambles, fruit. I think that not turning your garden every year may be the way to go. I get upset when I disturb the worms.
Merry Christmas!
These cards are beautiful! I love that they are functional, as well as practical. They remind me of Apple to Apples – I always spend more time reading the card info on each word/phrase then playing the game! lol! I think I would have the same enjoyment with your deck. Wonderful idea!!
OOOH this deck is so beautiful and I would love to win it. Permaculture, I have heard the word but really didn’t/don’t know what it is about. I am an avid gardener and have been since I was old enough to hold a hand shovel. Why haven’t I heard of this? Goodness. Anyway, would love a deck and thank you for allowing me to enter. Peace, Priscilla
Oh I so love these cards! I’m a bit of a tarot collector, but I do readings professionally, avid gemstone person, and lover of the EARTH! I always found it fascinating that even over a lifetime of studying the stones and rocks of the earth, even using them for divination, I remain seriously lacking about gardening and growing things. So lately, I’ve launched a large scale effort to concentrate to correct this, starting first, with watering my plants regularly and talking to them. I am avid about the importance of growing one’s own food, and buy local, organic, non GMO whenever possible, but lack the knowledge to really do it on my own. These cards are not only beeeeautiful, but have such fantastically interesting info and I would learn so much from these little gems! Thanks for posting!
Wow, this is a new concept to me, but I like it! With everything on the cards all you have to do is look at one card and you are off learning all kinds of things. I have just begun to learn more about naturalism, herbalism, and other Mother Earth news, taking it more serious than ever. These cards are beautiful! Thank you for doing this giveaway! Awesome! Shannon
I bought 2 packs , one for me and one for a friend who I infected with permaculture big time. They are awesome and I really love my deck.
I would love to give another set to my other friends who are just atarting down the permaculture road due to my infecting them. They were always survivalists, but permaculture is the best sustainable way to survive. It’s just not in the budget to buy another pack right now.
Thanks to Paul and everyone involved with putting out this great infectious product.
Wow these are beautiful! I’m addicted to unusual and beautiful card decks but this one is above the rest. I don’t have a deck that actually teaches while playing. The art is amazing and I can learn while enjoying. Please put me in the drawing and thank you!
I love the colors and look of these cards. I have been studying herbology for a little while now and these would really add to what I have learned so far. Beautiful.
Everything about Permaculture intrigues me. These cards look amazing! I’ll be adding to my wishlist if I don’t win a set. Thanks!
I live the idea of growing plants that are in harmony with your natural environment.
Permaculture sounds like the true way to go ‘sustainable’ in gardening, not just pay lip service to caring about Mother Earth. I will be looking into this now that I know about it. Thank you and Paul for helping to spread the word!
I am new to permaculture and love the idea of things being more balanced. The cards are gorgeous and can learn from them, play with them, my sons would also enjoy reading them and playing a game with them. They would be great to use in my creative writing workshops to use for prompts and discussions.
I love the layering concept of Permaculture and the “zones”. 2014 is going to be my “gardening” year, going to get started on growing our own vegetables and more flowers for butterflies.
Love this deck, it is absolutely gorgeous!
gaia’s garden is an unbelievable resource to start on the permie path. hugle beds and swales…so simple and effective. paul has a grest DVD set on rocket stoves that is amazing too.
We love the work with nature concept and are slowly trying to work it into our garden – it isn’t easy though. My dad was a developer so I was raised on overly manicured lawns and sometimes find myself reverting to that if I do not watch it.
What I like the most about permaculture is that permaculture can be the expression of a human being’s innate ability to use their cognition and creativity combined into an art-form that supports life, which is almost as innate in our nature. For example, plant combinations and guilds. You have to know what the plants provide and arrange them according to their function, never stopping entertaining thoughts that might be ‘outside of the box’.
I am in Toronto, Canada. Working to bring permaculture to the suburbs. Unfortunately, I will not be able to be eligible for the playing cards, nor does it seem I am able to obtain myccorhizal products due to being north of the imaginary line.
I’m growing an avocado tree in Southern Oregon.
I long to have our tiny piece of land be a sustainable life force.
Will definitely check out this new wave of growing technique.
Thank you!
I love permaculture because it works with nature, not against nature. I’m hoping to have a permaculture garden that will keep going …. and going …. with minimal work from me once it’s all set-up. I would love to win the deck of permaculture cards and learn more info “in bite-size pieces”
While the name Permaculture is new o me, the concept is not. My grandfather was an organic farmer before there was such a thing. He was old school and believed in creating an ecosystem that would benefit all of the plants, animals, and people who lived there.
This is an entry for the card contest. These cards have a wonderful and heartfelt design, so lovely and educational. They would fit right into a Christmas stocking for my husband. Please sign me up!
The card deck is beautiful and helps to re-enforce the current issues with Monsanto, agri-corporations and the like. Seeing the bee card also links to the issues of the bee population being decimated. The number one reason 1 out of 6 member get prostate cancer is fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. All in the cards, a nice neat package.
What do I like most about permaculture? Doing it requires you to live it and thus one is always thinking about and considering the relations between you and the environment around you. It forces you to consider more than yourself in making decisions and thus though never perfect you tend to make better decisions. Nature also teaches us to be forgiving, if something we try doesn’t work out, a plant doesn’t take where we want it to, we can try again. It is that constant interaction and learning that I enjoy the most.
These cards are beautiful! I know next to nothing about permaculture but it sounds very holistic and you have got my attention. I would love to be introduced to these ideas through this medium. Happy holidays!
We are in the process of creating a self-sustaining life – looking for land, what we want to build, how we want to live there. My intention is to work with, and live on the land and foster healthy relationships with all ‘beings’ there.
It warms my heart to know other people care about the environment. Sometimes, it seems like too few people care.
Wow, This is the first time I’ve heard of them? But Oh My Gosh, I’d love to see more…!!! This are Amazing…! I love the art, I love the messages-wording…..I Will Most Definitely be looking into this further! Thank you So much for posting this…!
Happy that GMO’S have been banned here through a law passed on the Big Island Haiwaii.
HAhahaha. So now that i bought a set of cards off Amazon, you are giving some away! O well i hope someone else learns a lot from them! Permaculture is my biggest passion….after discovering Bill Mollison, Geoff Lawton, and then Paul Wheaton (swoon)…..and discoving all that permaculture brings to the world, and COULD bring to the world in the way of stabilizing the planet, and the food sources, what it could bring to starving people everywhere….it just boggles the mind how really AWESOME this is!! Everyone that participates in this is MY HERO!!
Hi! I’m interested in the permaculture cards because our family has been on a vegan diet for about a month and a half now. This new way of eating, and thinking about where food comes from and how it gets to us has been a life-changing journey for me so far. Studies and questions lead me on to further studies and questions. And while we are all here on Earth together in these bodies that need to be cared for and fed- plants, animals, and humans- what could be more important than learning more about how it all fits and works together?
I am new to permaculture, but interested in it. I follow and listen to Paul’s podcasts. Learning more about it all the time. We live on a little homestead in Montana and are always wanting to become more self-sufficient. Thank you for the giveaway of the cards. Good luck everyone!
What I love about permaculture…
It is unavoidable.
It is about our relationship with nature and changing that from an exploitive one to a regenerative one through observation and bio-mimicry. As Lawton says “it is the ultimate end game”, once we are all done with oil and fertilizers and chemicals and unsustainable abuse of our planet it is permaculture and those of us who have kept these concepts and techniques alive who will be the regenerators of our world, the ‘unfuckers’ in the words of my friend Javan Bernakevitch (he will be presenting at Voices). Permaculture has the audacity to assume that Mother Nature is perfect, and as the best practitioner, she shows us how it is done. As much as we try to screw up our environment and our planet, she patiently repeats her lessons, sending us the weeds we don’t even know we need, showing us the problems that are really the solutions, bringing us back in touch with reality through our ‘natural’ surroundings. We may suffer the results of our own actions and inactions, but the Earth Abides (great book). Permaculture is based on ancient, natural wisdom that is timeless and only becomes more relevant, more pertinent as time goes on.
Permaculture is unavoidable.
Seth Peterson
I know little about permaculture but as my husband and I look at plans to build an Earthship home, this blog post sparked a whole new way to learn. Beautiful cards with must learn info – what a winning combination! I have so much to learn about sustainability and being good to Mother Gaia.
One thing I particularly like about permaculture is the spectrum to which it can be understood and applied. For exaple, permaculture can be broken down into simple concepts and taught to children, who on a fundamental level will grasp how that system is functioning ( and participate in it!). On the other end you see people who are experts in a particular field, using permaculture to foster the creation of incredibly productive and beautiful systems!
I love that permaculture is following the design strategies of nature – we humans may be clever, but I don’t think we are smarter than Mother Nature. I got a deck of these spectacular cards through Kickstarter, but my daughter begged for them, so I would love another deck!
I am learning as much about Permaculture as I can. I have a garden that I am trying to make as self sustaining as possible. It is 4 years old. It is along a small river where I am trying to stop erosion of the topsoil as well as increase the fertility. I am currently using 5 raised beds.
Permaculture newbie. Didn’t know what it was til I saw these cards and poster on Kickstarter. Would love to add the cards to my collection and love to learn more. Thanks!
Learning! Learning! Learning! bite-sized bits! Gorgeous, fun cards make so many versatile options! Games, classes, just passing time – things to ponder, things to try. Great ideas for my own self, my classes, my friends… conversations starters, all good, and important – lost information finding its way back – THANK YOU!
Would love a chance to win these!
These give the phrase “gambling with our future” a whole new meaning. Thanks Paul
First off, I just discovered your site. Fantastic site chocked full of info. Just read the caramelized onion post. Definitely going to try that. Anyway, onto permaculture. I’m new to it in a sense, and not so new to it in other senses. I tend to get lost in the overall picture instead of working out details. Just the few cards you posted have some great details.
I like how it seems as though permaculture vaguely follows human socialization patterns, and it also lets me get uptight about putting the wrong vegetables too near each other while also giving me an excuse to not get too near to certain humans.
I love the look and info on these cards. I am new to permaculture. Just planning my spring garden now. Also new to Oregon. As a holistic health practitioner, I find the bringing together instead of segregating, is important to me.
We just bought an acreage, that is mostly pasture-that-is-no-longer-pasture-but-blackberries, and are hoping to start up a proper little homestead out here. I’ve been fascinated by permaculture ever since coming across Gaia’s Garden, and although I love the orderliness of a more formal garden (or to be exact, cottage garden, since I love a bit of whimsy thrown in), I’m all about figuring out how to utilize companion planting methods to minimize pests and encourage a lush garden with both edible and medicinal, as well as ornamental plants.
I love permaculture because it give me purpose. Its a way to design my life, I haven’t fully transition but at the moment I finished Geoff Lawton’s online PDC. Now I am going to skill build and get a job on a farm. Permaculture makes learning fun and connected to nature, learn from it , and swell building is awesome. To create something that last thousand years to infinity that someone else family or not will benefit from….. thats why I’m inspired by Permaculture. I find myself talking about daily…. I’m hooked.
My favorite thing about Permaculture is that it builds, not destroys value. We are building hugelkultur beds instead of burning old limbs – what a great concept!
I love how Permaculture smacks you in the face, grabs you by the shoulders, and turns you around to face this consumerist plutocracy that is quickly destroying the planet. Then you turn back around with fresh perspective and you see a poly-culture of solutions on the land you’ve always been standing on; timeless wisdom of the ancient cycles harmoniously mixed with the ingenuity of the modern day mind!
I don’t know anything about it but I certainly would like to learn!
I am a process manager by trade, and I love the idea of efficiency gardening. Unfortunately, I do not have a space conducive to even container gardening but I look forward to helping my sister build out her whole yard garden this next spring, as well as starting my own small urban homestead in the near future 🙂