Games are a great way to learn, here are a selection of 7 permaculture games featuring plants, animals, principles, ideas, people, and places, all designed to enjoy and to teach us about permaculture. Permaculture is a design philosophy and practice centered on three core ethics: care for the earth, care for people, and fair share, creating systems that meet human needs while regenerating nature.
Permaculture Design Elements Game
Permaculture Design Elements Game, a set of over 170 cards featuring elements commonly found in permaculture gardens, farms, homesteads and urban spaces. Printable basemap game boards feature 8 different sites from cool climate, tropics and drylands or players can make their own basemap game board for where they are developing a permaculture system.
Permaculture Design Elements cards help players to consider the placement of parts in relation to the whole.
Starting with a base map, players should layout elements (e.g. greenhouse) already existing on the site and then to consider which other elements to add, where to add them and why. Elements can be moved around to illustrate the application of design principles, strategies, attitudes, frameworks and methods.
Food Forest Card Game
Food Forest Card Game, 66 cards representing plants, insects, structures or natural disasters. Games are based on the relationships connecting plants, insects, animals and people, matching the inputs on one card to outputs from another.
The cards can help brainstorm locations, sun requirements, and possible guilds that you can create in real life. In addition to inputs and outputs, each card shows suggested Permaculture zones, sun requirements, forest layer information and a helpful description of the item represented. From roots and fungus to the forest canopy, you’ll be playing with real information that can translate into better food forests.
Garden Match Cards
A set of beautifully designed cards for playing games as well as garden planning.
Full deck includes 72 cards. 52 plant cards (flowers, herbs, vegetables, fruit, shrubs), 18 special cards (animals, insects, infrastructure) and keycards. Plant cards are colour coded to make up sets of companion plants.Download, print, cut Garden Match Cards to play or plan Your garden.
Each card includes an illustration, a few short lines about the plant, a list of companions, days from seed to harvest, plant height and approximate yield.
Earth Mumma Games to Learn Permaculture through Nature Play
In a free download, Earth Mumma presents 96 activities for kids that embody the 12 permaculture principles.
Beyond boredom busters, they are designed to engage head, heart and hands for holistic learning. Activities include things like make a worm farm, soil testing, electricity saving test, diy solar oven, make a sundial, natural confetti etc.
Ecogames.net Permaculture Games
ecogames.net offers a selection of permaculture games, including board games and activity books related to permaculture.
Swales a Permaculture Sim
A simulator, see on YouTube and more details at Patreon. Developed by Victor. Not sure status of this project, last update is from May 2025.
Other Permaculture Games
Permaculture Assistant, includes a simple screen game.
Living Landscapes from Spiral Garden, comprises of 52 original water colour paintings and 2 blank cards for your own input. The cards also have the standard card symbols and numbers to play all your favourite card games.
Permaculture Playing Cards from Paul Wheaton and Alexander Ojeda. These are standard playing cards, each with a unique illustration and permaculture tips, techniques and principles. Cards include plants, permaculture personalities, infrastructure, tools, animals, insects etc.
Any Permaculture Games we Missed?
If you know of any permaculture games that should be included in our list, we’d love to hear from you.