Classes & Services

Workshops & Classes — In Person & Online

Maxx and Toby each bring over a decade of professional teaching experience to their work at Wolf Hill Press. More recently they’ve begun teaching workshops together on lunar gardening and related topics. Beginning in spring 2024 they will bring these classes to a web platform to make them accessible to a wider audience. Look for classes like:

This class serves as an introduction to the history, vocabulary, principles, and mechanics of gardening by the moon. Built on a foundation of science, traditional knowledge, and reverence for the moon, this workshop gives attendees an overview of the moon’s phases and zodiac cycles and their impact on the growing, harvesting, and seedsaving of vegetables, fruit, flowers, and herbs.

Lunar gardening has been practiced in many times and places worldwide. Our knowledge comes from— and this workshop focuses on—the aspect known as planting by the signs of the European and European-American farming traditions, and the farming technologies of historical and contemporary Haudenosaunee experts in lunar gardening and seedsaving.

Time will be given for questions and discussion of attendees’ gardens, and attendees will be given a list of sources for further exploration and reading.

Combining history, science, and reverence for the moon, this workshop will provide attendees with a deeper awareness of the moon’s phases and zodiac cycles to benefit the growing, harvesting, and seedsaving of medicinal and culinary herbs.

Lunar gardening has been practiced in many times and places worldwide. Our knowledge comes from—and this workshop focuses on—the aspect known as planting by the signs of the European-American traditions, and the farming technologies of historical and contemporary Haudenosaunee experts in lunar gardening and seedsaving.

Time will be given for questions and discussion, and attendees will leave with a list of sources for further exploration and reading.

Lunar Gardening should always be an enticement to work with our gardens and tend to the plants in our care, rather than a burden or a scold. Even for the chronically disorganized (hi…), there are ways to bring our lives more in tune with the natural rhythms of the world around us—without weighing ourselves down with unmanageable to-do lists that invite guilt and shame.

By looking at the year as a whole, attendees will be invited to see how the lunar cycles can enrich their gardening needs and focus their planning intentions where it’s most helpful.

This workshop is for those gardeners who already have a basic understanding of lunar gardening, and will outline several methods of timing the cycles of your planting and harvesting to the cycles of the moon. Attendees will be given links to free downloadable tools and resources for planning that will allow them to put together a perpetual lunar gardening calendar individualized to their particular garden, climate, and scheduling needs.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by a wall of facts and figures when you start looking deeper into planting by the signs. This class, intended for those already familiar with lunar planting, will go through commonly recommended companion planting pairs & guilds, and discuss the simplest ways to incorporate lunar gardening to support healthy plants and bountiful harvests. Companion technologies and knowledge are drawn from a variety of European-American and Indigenous Turtle Island farming traditions. Time will be given for questions and discussion of attendees’ gardens, and attendees will be given a list of sources for further exploration and reading.

Not based on lunar gardening, attendees of this class will come away with a variety of approaches for adapting to our changing climate and weather patterns, and the cascade of further effects to account for. This introductory class takes a look at some widely applicable strategies for mitigating the worst effects of extreme weather on your garden. These techniques will be most helpful in smaller gardens but some will scale up for larger gardens and farms. Throughout the class, specific examples will be explored to illustrate methods for developing current and future solutions to gardening struggles as they arise, and hopefully before.

In this discussion-based class we’ll take a look at some tools for anticipating and preventing damage from extreme weather and changing climate in attendees’ gardens and farms. Please come prepared to share any successes, learning experiences, and struggles, and questions in the class discussion. This will be an opportunity for problem-solving together and exploring potential tools, techniques, processes, and strategies. Attendees will be given a list of sources for further exploration and reading, and extensive notes will be taken during discussion that will be made available for reference afterward.

All classes are offered at a sliding scale. We invite you to reflect on your own financial situation and consider paying more if you experience such financial security as owning your own home, taking regular vacations, or earning a guaranteed salary; pay less if you experience financial instability such as renting or shift/gig work. If you live around or below the poverty level, please contact us about scholarship tickets.

If you are a local CNY organization and you would like to bring us to your outdoor event, or if you are a community focused organization and would like us to donate a virtual class, please contact us.

Testimonials from Past Students

“I greatly enjoyed your presentation at the CNY Pagan Festival. I especially like that your visuals were so detailed and beautifully drawn; I’ve referred to the pictures I took several times since.”
-Kira L.

Upcoming Class Dates

Introduction to Lunar Gardening
Planning Your Lunar Gardening Year
  • April 13 2024, 2-4 pm Eastern
Lunar Gardening for the Home Herbalist
Companion Planting by the Signs

Click on CLASS DATE to purchase tickets. If none of these times work for you, click here to sign up for our waitlist.

~ all classes via zoom unless noted otherwise ~

Garden Planning & Consulting

Starting a brand-new garden is both enticingly simple and deceptively complicated. If you’re looking for an experienced eye to help you hash out your plans before you get started, or someone to help you troubleshoot problems in established beds, Toby—head gardener at Wolf Hill Press since our founding in 2021—can listen and suggest best practices to get you started on the right foot, or natural Earth-friendly solutions to problems you’re having with planting, germination rates, disappointing harvests, and more.

If you’re interested in our consulting services, you will need to provide detailed information including:

  • scale map of your existing garden or the land you have available to garden (survey map if you have it, google earth if you don’t)
  • climate data such as: USDA Hardiness Zone, typical length & severity of hot & cold seasons, prevailing wind direction & strength, precipitation levels and distribution across the year
  • soil test results if you have them
  • list of plants you would like to grow

So how does it work?

Step 1 – Contact us to schedule an initial zoom call

Step 2 – Initial consult where we talk about your current situation and future hopes (1-2 hours, $45-90)

Step 3 – Toby will research & put together a detailed plan for you, drawing on his own farming experience as well as research done specifically to your situation (1-3 weeks, price variable; the more information you can provide about your garden, the quicker—and cheaper—this part of the process will be)

Step 4) Final meeting where Toby shares his planning and research and answers any lingering questions (1-2 hours, free)

Payment – You must prepay for the initial consult. (Once you have paid for your consult, I will send you a link to book your consult at whatever time is convenient to you.) Research & planning hours will be billed at $45/hour—you may set a maximum number of hours if you wish. The final zoom call is free.

In Person Consulting – If you are local to CNY, I may be able to travel to you and see what you’re working with in person. However, I will need to bill for the entire time I am away from my house, including travel time.