The questions everyone asks first.

The app, installing and offline

Is this a native app I have to download from the App Store?

No. Garden Buddy AU is a web app that installs to your phone’s home screen. On Android, Chrome offers an Install button and it really is one tap. On an iPhone you add it yourself from Safari’s Share menu, Add to Home Screen, which is the only route Apple allows anyone. Either way there is no App Store, no 30 per cent platform cut taken out of your subscription, and no waiting on a review queue when I fix something. Updates arrive the next time you open it. Once it sits on the home screen it opens full screen and behaves like any other app.

Does it really work without internet?

Yes, once you have saved it. Open the Account tab while you still have reception and tap Save for offline. That pulls the planting calendars, the growing guides, the pest guide, the veggie prices and your own saved plans onto the device, along with the app itself. After that the planner, the calendars and the guides all open in the shed with no bars at all.

One honest limit, because I would rather you heard it here than found out in the paddock: offline is read only for anything that lives on the server. You can open your plan, browse every crop and look up a pest, but saving a change to a plan needs a connection, and the app tells you so instead of quietly pretending it saved. Reconnect and your garden syncs back to your free account across phone, tablet and computer, and the sharing and multi-device features come back with it.

What regions does it cover?

All of Australia. Planting dates are tuned to one of seven climate zones: tropical, subtropical, warm temperate, cool temperate, cold highland, arid or semi-arid, and Mediterranean. There are 2,641 Australian postcodes mapped to a zone, so your postcode picks your calendar instead of you guessing which capital city you are nearest to. Darwin and Hobart get genuinely different sowing months, not the same list with a different heading on top.

What if my postcode lands in the wrong zone?

Tell me and I’ll fix the mapping. Zone boundaries follow climate data, not council borders, so a postcode that straddles a range or runs from the coast up onto a tableland can end up on the wrong side of a line. Nothing blocks you while that gets sorted: you can set your zone by hand in the app and it stays set. A correction goes in for everyone on that postcode, not just your account.

Can I see it before I pay?

Yes. The planner opens without an account at all, so you can lay out a bed and see how it works before you decide anything. Beyond that the Free plan is a real plan and not a trial with a countdown on it: live veggie prices, the three month trend chart, planting times for your zone, both weekly emails and a small journal, no card needed. Paid plans start at $3.99 a month and add the rest.

Open the planner

Subscription questions

Can I cancel any time?

Yes. One click from your account page. No phone calls, no retention loops. You keep access until the end of the current billing period; nothing else is charged.

Do you refund unused time on annual plans?

No. Cancelling stops the next charge, it does not send money back. You keep full access until the end of the year you paid for, but the unused months are not refunded. If you are not sure a year suits you, take a month first and move to annual once you know.

Can I switch tiers?

Yes. Upgrading takes effect immediately once you pay for the new tier. Downgrading takes effect at your next renewal. Either way, whatever is left of the plan you are leaving is not refunded or credited, so the end of a billing period is the tidiest time to switch.

Can I pause my subscription?

Not directly yet. What I’d do is cancel and re-subscribe within 12 months, your data waits for you. A formal pause option may come later in 2026.

Your data

What happens to my garden data if I cancel?

Your data stays in my database for 12 months. If you re-subscribe within that window, everything is still there for you. After 12 months I anonymise and delete per the privacy policy.

Can I export my data?

Yes. From /my-account/export-data/ you can download a complete JSON of every bed, plant, harvest, care event, and pest observation you’ve logged. Yours forever, formatted for any spreadsheet or analysis tool.

Do you share my data with anyone?

No. Your individual garden data is never shared with third parties. Aggregated anonymised statistics (“Australian home growers harvested X kg of broccoli last autumn”) may appear in blog posts and research, but your individual data never leaves my database.

Is my data backed up?

Yes. I run daily automated database backups retained for 30 days, and weekly backups retained for 12 months. Stored off server. I’ve never lost member data.

Payment and security

Is my payment information secure?

Payments go through Stripe, PCI-DSS Level 1 certified (highest tier). I never see or store your card number, Stripe does.

What cards do you accept?

Visa, Mastercard, American Express. Apple Pay and Google Pay also work via Stripe’s hosted checkout on supported devices. Zip, Afterpay, and similar BNPL aren’t supported for subscriptions.

What about GST?

Prices include GST (10% for Australian customers. The $29 annual plan is $26.36 + $2.64 GST). My ABN appears on every invoice (86 081 237 087, Dutch Digital Dynamics Pty Ltd).

Can I deduct the subscription for tax?

If you use Garden Buddy AU for a business purpose (market garden, CSA, farmers’ market stallholder, food bloggers using their own produce for content), the subscription may be tax deductible. Check with your accountant, I don’t give tax advice.

Price data

How often do you update prices?

Every night, 23:00 to 00:10 AEST. I pull daily averages from Woolies, Coles, Aldi and IGA for 79 vegetables. My null rate across the four retailers runs at around 0.8%.

Why do some crops show “no price data”?

Usually because the crop is sold by the bunch (kale, silverbeet, coriander, bok choy), not by weight. I capture what’s available, but per kg data for these is thin and I’d rather show “no data” than misleadingly low numbers.

Can I override prices for specific crops?

Pro tier yes. You can set a per crop price override that’s used for your ROI calculations. Starter tier uses my compiled price averages.

Geography and scope

Can I use Garden Buddy AU from outside Australia?

You can sign up and use the garden tracker (beds, plants, harvests, care log). But the supermarket prices, the climate zones, and the planting guides are all Australian. If you’re in NZ, the UK, the US, or anywhere else, you’ll get less value out of it. My zone system won’t match your climate.

Will you expand to New Zealand?

Maybe in 2027. NZ has distinct climate zones that would need fresh data collection, not just a copy of the Australian system. Email me if you’re interested and I’ll note the demand.

Features

Do you have a phone app?

Not yet. The website is mobile responsive and works on any phone browser. A native app is on my roadmap for Q4 2026 but only if the web product proves itself first.

Can I share a membership with family?

One paid membership covers one user account. Gift subscriptions aren’t supported yet. Couples sharing a garden typically just share the one account’s login and that’s fine for now. Family accounts with multiple logins are on my roadmap for 2026.

Can I share my garden publicly?

Not yet, except via my /demo-garden/ which is mine. A “public profile” feature where members can optionally share their plot is something I’m considering for 2027.

Can I import data from another app?

I can import CSVs if the column structure is clean enough to work with. Email support with a sample file and I’ll review what’s possible. Direct integrations with other gardening apps aren’t supported.

The spelling question

What’s with the occasional Dutch-sounding spelling?

There isn’t any in this guide. I grew up in the Netherlands, and earlier content had some Dutch-English quirks in it for authenticity. I’ve removed them from the member guide at user request. Everything here is Australian English, no typos intended.

Why Australian English?

Because the product is Australian. Colour, behaviour, organise, realise, fertilise, that’s how it’s spelled here.