Every new moon, first quarter, full moon and last quarter through to the end of 2027, calculated for your own location, sits on one page at gardenbuddy.au/moon-calendar/. No app to install, no separate almanac to buy. Here is what it does and how to actually use it.
A minute and a bit on what the Moon Calendar shows and how to read it.
What the Moon Calendar actually shows
Open the page and the top card gives you today’s illumination percentage, the moon’s age in days, its current zodiac sign, and the name of the next phase due. Underneath that sits a day by day grid: every date carries a small moon icon for its phase, the zodiac sign for that day, and a coloured tag for which kind of crop the day favours, fruit, root, leaf or flower.
The logic behind the tags is straightforward biodynamic moon planting: fire and earth zodiac signs favour fruit and root crops, water and air signs favour leaf and flower crops. The legend sits on the page itself, so there is no second tab to keep open while you read the grid.
Why bother with moon planting at all
We are not going to tell you moon planting is proven science, because the research on it is genuinely mixed. What we will say is that it gives you a simple, repeatable rule for choosing planting days when you would otherwise be guessing, and a lot of gardeners who have used it for years swear by the results in their own beds. If you already follow biodynamic timing, the calendar does the lookup for you. If you do not, it costs nothing to check before you plant and decide for yourself over a season or two.
How to use it
- Quick check: load the page, read the top card, plant or hold off based on today’s phase and element.
- Planning ahead: scroll the grid to see which days this month and next favour the crop you are planting, then pick a weekend that lines up.
- No screen in the shed: download the free one page PDF covering every new moon, first quarter, full moon and last quarter for 2026 and 2027. Print it, pin it up, and you never need to open the site to check a date.
- Full day by day detail: the complete monthly calendar with day by day recommendations is a free GardenBuddy.au account. No credit card, just an email address.
Where the data comes from
Moon phase and illumination come from the same astronomical calculation pipeline that runs the rest of GardenBuddy.au’s weather and astronomy data, not a static lookup table. The location defaults to Dayboro, Queensland, where the GardenBuddy.au team is based, but the phase and illumination numbers hold for every reader across the country. Zodiac timing and the fruit, root, leaf and flower tags follow standard biodynamic planting convention.
Understanding the eight moon phases
The calendar works through eight phases, and each one points at a different job in the bed rather than one right answer for the whole month.
- New Moon: a leaf window. Lettuce, spinach, cabbage and celery suit this stretch.
- Waxing Crescent: still leafy. Broccoli and cauliflower go in alongside more lettuce and spinach.
- First Quarter: the switch to fruiting plants. Tomatoes, beans, peas and capsicum are the calendar’s picks here.
- Waxing Gibbous: more fruiting crops, tomatoes again plus squash, melons and corn.
- Full Moon: root vegetables and transplanting. Carrots, potatoes, onions and beetroot.
- Waning Gibbous: more root crops, carrots, garlic, radishes and turnips.
- Last Quarter: a rest period for planting. Pruning, weeding and composting instead.
- Waning Crescent: the same rest logic, put toward soil prep, mulching and pest control.
Underneath all eight sits one rule. As the moon waxes from new to full, sap is said to rise, which favours anything growing above ground. As it wanes from full back to new, energy is said to shift to roots, which favours anything growing below ground or already settling in after transplant. The zodiac sign layered on top adds a second filter: fire and earth signs lean fruit and root, water and air signs lean leaf and flower.
Frequently asked questions
Does the calendar know my postcode or grow zone? No. Moon phase and illumination are the same for every reader on a given day no matter where in Australia you are, so there is nothing to enter. What you should actually plant in that window still depends on your climate, so pair the phase with the Grow Zone Map before you commit seed.
Do I need an account to use it? No. Today’s phase card, the zodiac reference and the free printable PDF are open to everyone. The full day by day monthly grid with the planting tags is what unlocks with a free GardenBuddy.au account, no credit card.
How far ahead can I look? The grid pages forward and backward one month at a time using the arrows either side of the calendar, so checking next month or last month is as easy as checking this one. The printable PDF covers every new moon, first quarter, full moon and last quarter for 2026 and 2027 in one go.
Is this the same for the whole country? The phase and illumination figures hold nationally. The sunrise, sunset and twilight times shown on the page are calculated for Dayboro, Queensland, where the GardenBuddy.au team is based, so treat those specific times as a south east Queensland reference rather than your own.
Related features
The Moon Calendar works best alongside a couple of GardenBuddy.au’s other guides.
- Grow Zone Map: find your climate zone so a “good root day” points you at the right root crop for your area, not just any root crop.
- Companion Planting Guide: once you know the day favours fruit, root, leaf or flower, this tells you what grows well next to it.
- Farmers Almanac: the month by month, zone based version of the same planting logic, for when you want a longer view than one lunar cycle.
Try it now
Head to the Moon Calendar, check today’s phase, and grab the free PDF for the shed wall. If you want the full day by day grid unlocked for every day of the month, join GardenBuddy.au free, no credit card required.
