Wild Abundance is more than a school. It’s our attempt to create the kind of world we want to live in. Here, we strive to honor the generosity of the living world, and to sustain ourselves in reverent reciprocity with everything that makes our lives possible.
The home campus of Wild Abundance is a breathtaking 7 acre permaculture homestead. We’re nestled in a rich cove amidst likeminded land stewards in the Southern Appalachian mountains, just 25 minutes north of Asheville, NC. Here, we teach practical skills for living with the land. Plus, we offer inspiration and build connection amongst our students, apprentices, instructors, and staff.
Welcome to our home
All in-person classes take place safely outdoors, with appropriate shelter in inclement weather
Wild Abundance boasts many gorgeous and functional features, all crafted lovingly by ourselves and our community of students, friends, and neighbors. We’ve got a gorgeous and bountiful leaf-shaped organic permaculture garden; a food forest including delectable perennial beds; a log cabin built out of trees from our own growing forest with a light straw clay addition; a cob oven; a lecture hall perched atop a store room and root cellar; and a stunning wattle and daub outdoor kitchen and classroom featuring a handmade sun motif sculpted by the hands of our students.
In addition, our campus includes several three-season shelters, perched along the hillside, where our apprentices reside. They’ve got their own lovely outdoor kitchen with handmade accents and dramatic views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Our Campus is Unconventional
Here you’ll see handmade structures that are whimsical, beautiful, and different than your typical home or classroom. We have an outdoor shower and (permitted) outhouse instead of a traditional bathroom. Our home and learning spaces are built into the hillside, leaving flatland below for planting. As you explore the campus, you’ll find yourself walking along footpaths and up and down rustic steps made of split logs and packed earth.
Campsites are available to our students for free. We’ve cleared and flattened several sweet places to pitch a tent in the woods, which are a short but uphill walk from parking areas. Additionally, we offer field camping that you can drive right up to. There are also abundant trees from which to hang a hammock.
We try to make classes accessible to students of varying physical abilities. However, it’s important to note that our mountain campus is not wheelchair accessible and may pose some difficulty to those who are not able-bodied.
Transformation through Permaculture
Before Wild Abundance, this land was alternately barren and swampy. In fact, it had been deforested and then overgrazed by cattle for several decades. Using the tools of permaculture, and with the help of loving students and friends, the campus has been transformed into a thriving homestead.
Notably, we’ve seen the return of wildlife and many native plants. In addition, we’ve helped to generate several inches of rich topsoil and now have a productive garden and food forest where there was once muck and erosion.
All of the buildings we’ve erected demonstrate natural building techniques and are designed to showcase the natural beauty of this place. Every single permaculture principle has been thoughtfully applied to each addition to the land. In this way, as we grow, we continue to honor the natural patterns and cycles of life.
This is a place where students learn by example, soaking up the beauty and function of permaculture in action.
Classes
Our classes cover a wide range of topics. We teach homesteading skills for everyone from the total novice to the seasoned land-manager. In addition, we offer carpentry courses with a focus on natural and sustainable building modalities, including tiny houses. We get students out into the fields and woods with our foraging and herbal medicine classes. Through rewilding classes we teach hands-on skills like hide tanning that help students reconnect with their ancestral wisdom. Tying it all together, our permaculture courses teach systems thinking and interconnection.
Check out all of our class offerings here, there really is something for everyone.
Natalie Bogwalker
Natalie Bogwalker is the founder and director of Wild Abundance. She has devoted her life to helping empower people to live in collaboration with the natural cycles of the Earth. She and her family make their home at Wild Abundance. Here, she’s joined by a lovely and devoted staff who help to manage the school, plus several seasonal permaculture apprentices who make Wild Abundance their home for a season or year. Natalie teaches some portion of every class at Wild Abundance. She’s supported by an incredible network of inspiring and delightful instructors who each teach their passions and expertise. Check out her longer bio to learn more about Natalie Bogwalker.
“This homestead deeply inspires students to dream about what is possible. By living here, I’ve learned ethical and sustainable living is feasible in beautifully simple ways.”
– JJ Bloomfield, Apprentice
Our hope is that Wild Abundance will, in turn, change the lives of all who come here. As visitors leave their mark on our permaculture homestead, so will this land leave its mark on everyone who travels here. May our vision and efforts inspire a deep reverence for the sacred and ancient relationship between human beings and the Earth.
Upcoming Classes
Upcoming Classes

Women's Basic Carpentry
April 22 - April 25, 2021
This class is intended to get ladies up-to-speed on basic building skills, working with wood, and using hand tools as well as power tools. Focus is placed on creating a safe, comfortable, relaxed and fun learning environment in which students with beginning to intermediate skill levels can thrive. Trans welcome.
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Survival Skills Class
April 29 - May 2, 2021
Come immerse yourself in the ancient arts and modern techniques that will grow your confidence and hone your ability to survive and thrive in the wild. The natural world can provide for all your basic needs, but you need knowledge and skills to utilize what’s out there.
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Women's Basic Carpentry
May 6 - May 9, 2021
This class is intended to get ladies up-to-speed on basic building skills, working with wood, and using hand tools as well as power tools. Focus is placed on creating a safe, comfortable, relaxed and fun learning environment in which students with beginning to intermediate skill levels can thrive. Trans welcome.
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Wildcrafting and Medicine Making Intensive
May 20 - May 23, 2021
Identify and wild forage medicinal plants in the Appalachian mountains. Learn to make medicine and cultivate herbs in your garden. Make and take home herbal salves, tinctures, flower essences, decoctions, cough syrups, herbal liqueurs, oxymels and vinegars.
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Women’s Rewilding Weekend
June 3 - June 6, 2021
Gather with other women for a long weekend of connection, learning, and rewilding. Basketry, medicine making, cheese and soap making, wild foods cookery, friction fire, and more In the mountains near Asheville, NC.
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Summer Planting for Fall Gardening
June 15 - December 31, 2021
FREE Class on Planting for Fall and Winter Harvests This 1 hour and 35 minute long video course is accompanied by a 25 page course manual to help you get growing. Registration is currently closed. Get on the waitlist below to be notified when this class opens again. You’ll also receive our newsletters, which are […]
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Women's Basic Carpentry
July 8 - July 11, 2021
This class is intended to get ladies up-to-speed on basic building skills, working with wood, and using hand tools as well as power tools. Focus is placed on creating a safe, comfortable, relaxed and fun learning environment in which students with beginning to intermediate skill levels can thrive. Trans welcome.
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Advanced Women's Carpentry
July 15 - July 18, 2021
So, you know how to use a drill and a skillsaw and you can build a basic shelf, but you want to get proficient with building bigger things. Do you have buildings in your sights? This class will give you the skills you need for designing and constructing small buildings and sheds and will set you on the road toward more complex structures.
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Tiny Homes and Natural Building
July 22 - July 31, 2021
Gain the skills you need to build your own tiny house from local, natural, or conventional materials. Tour beautifully crafted tiny houses and natural buildings, learn about each stage of building from expert lectures, experience hands-on learning as we build a tiny house from scratch, and practice natural plaster and paint. This is the most practical Natural Building Course out there.
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Women's Basic Carpentry
August 5 - August 8, 2021
This class is intended to get ladies up-to-speed on basic building skills, working with wood, and using hand tools as well as power tools. Focus is placed on creating a safe, comfortable, relaxed and fun learning environment in which students with beginning to intermediate skill levels can thrive. Trans welcome.
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Permaculture Design Certificate Course
August 14 - August 27, 2021
This permaculture class empowers students to become effective ecological designers and planners. You will come out of this class with deep knowledge about creating forest gardens, ecology, permaculture principles, plant species and variety choices, holistic forestry, and more.
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Tiny Homes and Natural Building
September 16 - September 25, 2021
Gain the skills you need to build your own tiny house from local, natural, or conventional materials. Tour beautifully crafted tiny houses and natural buildings, learn about each stage of building from expert lectures, experience hands-on learning as we build a tiny house from scratch, and practice natural plaster and paint. This is the most practical Natural Building Course out there.
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Online Hide Tanning Class
November 1 - December 31, 2021
Learn from expert brain-tanners the process of transforming deer hide into soft, supple, beautiful buckskin, suitable for fabulously comfortable clothing and accessories. Leave the class with your very own finished hide tanned in the traditional and completely natural way.
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Hide Tanning Class
November 11 - November 14, 2021
Learn from expert brain-tanners the process of transforming deer hide into soft, supple, beautiful buckskin, suitable for fabulously comfortable clothing and accessories. Leave the class with your very own finished hide tanned in the traditional and completely natural way.
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Earthskills and Permaculture Immersion
April 1 - November 30, 2022
Earn your PDC and change your life. One 3-day weekend-a-month for 8 months. Build community and let the knowledge sink in. Learn permaculture, earthskills, building, wild foods, forest gardening, how to live a life of purpose, and more, near Asheville, NC.
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Classes For Next Year

Holistic Garden Planning
March 1 - March 15, 2021
FREE Class on Holistic Garden Planning Sign up below for free, lifetime access! This 2+ hour, comprehensive video course includes materials for both beginning and more experienced gardeners. It’s accompanied by a 30+ page course manual ebook to help you get growing. You’ll also receive our newsletters, which are full of seasonal tips, recipes, how-to’s, […]
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10 Spring Wild Foods That You Can Find Almost Anywhere
January 1 - December 31, 2021
Do you want to be able to feed yourself from the wild? Discover delicacies growing right outside your door. Your guide through this course is seasoned Wild Abundance instructor Luke Cannon. He’s been foraging wild foods for over two decades! More than a botanist, Luke is a long-time pursuer and teacher of the magic and […]
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Online Vegetable Fermentation
January 1 - December 31, 2021
Learn how to make your own sauerkraut, pickles, and more! Vegetable fermentation master Marissa Percocco walks you through everything you need to know to feel confident in the kitchen making your own tasty treats. Learn the science and lore of fermentation, along with step-by-step instructions on how to make pickles, sauerkraut, beet kvass, sauces, and […]
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Online Tiny House Class
January 1 - December 31, 2021
Gain the confidence to design and get started building your own ecological tiny house — wherever you are, on wheels or on a foundation. This in-depth lecture series covers the basics and beyond, including natural building modalities.
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Online Gardening School
December 31 - December 31, 2020
Are you ready to grow some serious food? This six-month online video course will give you the skills and tools you need to be able to grow a garden for yourself, from the ground up.
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Advanced Women's Carpentry
October 15 - October 18, 2020
So, you know how to use a drill and a skillsaw and you can build a basic shelf, but you want to get proficient with building bigger things. Do you have buildings in your sights? This class will give you the skills you need for designing and constructing small buildings and sheds and will set you on the road toward more complex structures.
Learn More
Women's Basic Carpentry
August 6 - August 9, 2020
This class is intended to get ladies up-to-speed on basic building skills, working with wood, and using hand tools as well as power tools. Focus is placed on creating a safe, comfortable, relaxed and fun learning environment in which students with beginning to intermediate skill levels can thrive. Trans welcome.
Learn More
Advanced Women's Carpentry
July 23 - July 26, 2020
So, you know how to use a drill and a skillsaw and you can build a basic shelf, but you want to get proficient with building bigger things. Do you have buildings in your sights? This class will give you the skills you need for designing and constructing small buildings and sheds and will set you on the road toward more complex structures.
Learn More
Women's Basic Carpentry
July 16 - July 19, 2020
This class is intended to get ladies up-to-speed on basic building skills, working with wood, and using hand tools as well as power tools. Focus is placed on creating a safe, comfortable, relaxed and fun learning environment in which students with beginning to intermediate skill levels can thrive. Trans welcome.
Learn More
Women's Basic Carpentry
June 18 - June 21, 2020
This class is intended to get ladies up-to-speed on basic building skills, working with wood, and using hand tools as well as power tools. Focus is placed on creating a safe, comfortable, relaxed and fun learning environment in which students with beginning to intermediate skill levels can thrive. Trans welcome.
Learn More
Firefly Gathering
June 3 - June 7, 2020
Near Asheville, NC A one-of-a-kind, highly dynamic and intimate community-based skill sharing festival, the Firefly Gathering welcomes children and adults interested in Earth-based knowledge and primitive skills to transform for your life. Co-founded by Kaleb Wallace and our own Natalie Bogwalker in 2007, Firefly gathers a bevy of inspiring community members and skilled teachers, highlighting […]
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Apprenticeship
April 21 - November 20, 2020
Our Apprenticeship Programs equip participants with the skills they need to live with the web of life: natural building & tiny house construction, foraging & wildcrafting; hide tanning & basket-making; permaculture design & organic gardening; herbalism & nature connection; functional communication & community living; storytelling; deep ecology; and much, much more!
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Women's Basic Carpentry
April 16 - April 19, 2020
This class is intended to get ladies up-to-speed on basic building skills, working with wood, and using hand tools as well as power tools. Focus is placed on creating a safe, comfortable, relaxed and fun learning environment in which students with beginning to intermediate skill levels can thrive. Trans welcome.
Learn More
Women's Basic Carpentry
April 2 - April 5, 2020
This class is intended to get ladies up-to-speed on basic building skills, working with wood, and using hand tools as well as power tools. Focus is placed on creating a safe, comfortable, relaxed and fun learning environment in which students with beginning to intermediate skill levels can thrive. Trans welcome.
Learn More
Advanced Permaculture Practicum
Get hands-on experience with applied permaculture in water systems, earthworks, orchards and food forests. You’ll be guided by seasoned practitioners who can answer more complex questions and show you the nitty gritty of how to approach projects and get them done effectively.
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