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July 2026 marks the launch of our First Edition Deck of Tending to Endings Cards, which you can access digitally here, with new Facilitation Guidelines, for a contribution of your choosing. You can use them digitally or print them locally. We launched physical prototype card packs in June 2025, which are no longer available.
The prototype pack had 12 cards. As we worked with them, we felt something was missing: a card for endings that move beyond our control, where the most generative thing we can do is step back and let things scatter. Letting Go to Seed draws on the garden practice of bolting: a plant redirecting all its energy into seeds that disperse by wind, birds and chance. It felt important, especially for endings we didn't choose.
The First Edition Pack is a digital card deck available via a PDF download. We went digital because so many of our community were requesting cards worldwide, where customs and postage were a blocker. The pack comes with printing suggestions so you can make your own physical set. We hope to offer physical packs again in the future.
You can use them on screen — tablet, laptop or phone — or print them at home or at a local print shop. The download comes with printing instructions. The Facilitation Guidelines include suggestions for using the cards on your own, one-to-one, or in groups. There's no single right way. Some people pull a card each morning. Others use them in coaching, retrospectives, or workshops. Start with what feels natural. We are also deliberately flexible in letting you how you adapt the cards yourself, so feel free to make your own versions, as long as you follow our guidance on usage (see below).
We operate on a contribution model — you choose what feels right. As a rough guide: if money is tight, contribute what you can, including nothing at all. If you're a coach, facilitator or consultant using the cards professionally in a well-resourced context, we'd suggest £30 or more. Whatever you give helps sustain this work. Our time developing this project is unfunded.
We'd love to. When we did this for the prototype run, our challenges were cost (international postage and customs made the Prototype Pack hard to get to people affordably), logistics (we weren’t set up to be shipping ourselves at the level of demand we experienced) and the carbon cost of air freight. If we offer physical packs again, we'll announce it through the newsletter. For now, the digital pack is designed to be printable wherever you are.
Letting Go to Seed isn't available separately — it's part of the First Edition Pack and the Facilitation Guidelines, which give it its full context. If you already have the Prototype Pack, the First Edition also gives you refined versions of all the other cards alongside the new one.
Your Prototype Pack still works — the core metaphors haven't changed. We've refined language and imagery and added a new card (Letting Go to Seed), but the prototype cards remain usable. What we would suggest is picking up the Facilitation Guidelines, which are new and offer much richer support — including safety guidance, session formats and deeper context for each metaphor — which come with the new First Edition Deck, so you can see what has changed and decide whether to work with your existing pack or use the new one.
The main changes:
A new card — Letting Go to Seed — exploring surrender, uncontrolled legacy and what scatters beyond our plans.
Pesticide repositioned as a shadow card — still in the deck, but framed as a mirror for harmful or avoidant ways of handling endings.
Refined language and imagery across cards, based on community feedback.
The Guidelines are the companion to the card deck. They include deeper context for each card (gardening practice, cultural history, metaphor), safety guidance for holding endings work well, ready-to-use session formats for groups and one-to-one, garden-based exercises, indigenous and cultural parallels, and prompts and reflections for each card. They're designed for anyone using the cards — experienced facilitators and newcomers alike.
No. The cards are for anyone — personal reflection, conversation with a friend, or professional practice. The Facilitation Guidelines support all these uses. That said, if you're using the cards in a group setting around grief, loss or organisational change, the safety guidance is worth reading carefully. Endings work can touch deep feelings, and holding that well matters.
Yes. You don't need gardening knowledge to use the cards. The metaphors are intuitive — most people connect with ideas like composting, pruning or weeding without needing to know the horticultural detail. The Facilitation Guidelines include background on each practice if you want it, but the cards are designed to speak for themselves. We've had them used effectively in boardrooms, therapy rooms, community halls and living rooms — by people with no garden at all.
Yes. You're welcome to use the cards in paid coaching, therapy, facilitation, consultancy or any other professional context. The card content is openly licensed (CC BY-SA 4.0), so there's no restriction on commercial use as long as you credit Tending to Endings. The Facilitation Guidelines cover this in full. If you're charging for your time and expertise, the cards are a tool you're bringing into that work — and that's exactly what they're for.
You can absolutely use the cards in your own workshops. We'd ask that you present them as a tool you're using — for example, "I'll be using the Tending to Endings card deck in this session" — rather than branding the event itself as a Tending to Endings workshop. The brand name is ours, but the cards are yours to work with.
We do, from time to time. If you're interested in us facilitating a session for your team, community or event, get in touch ([email protected]) and we'll see what's possible.
Yes. The card content is shared under a Creative Commons licence (CC BY-SA 4.0) — you can use, share and adapt it, with credit to Tending to Endings and on the same open terms. The brand (name, logo, visual design) is ours, so your work should credit us but not look like an official Tending to Endings product.
Creative Commons is a licensing system that lets creators share work openly while keeping some rights. Our CC BY-SA 4.0 licence means you can share, adapt, translate and use the card content in your own work — including work you charge for — as long as you credit us and share adaptations on the same terms. The brand (name, logo, design) is protected separately. We chose this because grief touches everyone, and we believe these ideas should be available to anyone who needs them.
A simple line is enough — for example: "Using the Tending to Endings card deck. Original work at tendingtoendings.com." If you've adapted the content, note that too. Full details are in the Facilitation Guidelines.
Subscribe to our newsletter at tendingtoendings.com. We share reflections, new ways to use the cards, and stories from the community. You can reply to any newsletter — we read everything. If you're using the cards in your practice, we'd love to hear how it's going.
The most valuable thing you can do is use the cards and tell people about them. Word of mouth is how almost all of our community found us. If you write about the cards, share them on social media, or recommend them to a colleague, that helps enormously. And if you have feedback — what worked, what didn't, what's missing — we always want to hear it.
Who knows! For now, we each have different commitments and priorities that we need to tend to. We’re here, and we’ll continue to be present to our community and bring curiosity to what grows. We’d love to hear from you.