Gardening by the Moon: a guide to the biodynamic lunar calendar

Gardening by the Moon means putting sowing, planting, tending and harvesting on the days the lunar calendar names for them. To do this, the biodynamic lunar calendar reads three things in the sky: which constellation the Moon stands in front of, whether it is running higher or lower, and how much light it shows. From these come root, leaf, flower and fruit days, times for planting and for harvesting, and a few hours in which nothing is sown.

The basic rule fits into a few sentences. Carrots are sown on a root day, lettuce on a leaf day, flowers and broccoli on a flower day, tomatoes and beans on a fruit day. Planting, feeding and pruning happen with a descending Moon, harvesting with an ascending one. Lunar nodes and perigee are left free. The weather comes first: if the soil is too wet or too cold, you wait for the next suitable day. It comes round again after about nine days.

This guide explains where the rules come from, which plant belongs to which day type, how to read a lunar calendar and how to plan a week of garden work with it. Today's day is shown in the lunar calendar for today, every day of the coming year in the lunar calendar 2027.

Why the Moon matters in the garden

Sowing and harvesting by the Moon is older than any printed calendar. For centuries, farmers' sayings and household almanacs set the dates for sowing, felling timber and harvesting by the Moon. Rudolf Steiner took up the idea in 1924 in the Agriculture Course at Koberwitz, with which biodynamic agriculture began. According to Steiner, the celestial bodies close to the Earth, the Moon, Mercury and Venus, act through the calcareous on the growth and reproduction of the plant. Mars, Jupiter and Saturn act through the siliceous and take part in making the plant into food for animals and people.

The garden calendar most people know today was created by Maria Thun. Over decades she ran growing trials and compared sowings on different days with the position of the Moon in front of the constellations of the zodiac. The division into root, leaf, flower and fruit days comes from her. Her first sowing calendar appeared in 1963, and one has appeared every year since. Her book on gardening by the Moon explains the method for the home garden.

The Präparatekiste, from which Dyyna grew, has its roots here: in 1968 Wedig von Bonin converted the Eichwerder farm to biodynamic management and carried out the first trials of the barrel compost preparation with Maria Thun.

What the lunar calendar reads in the sky

The biodynamic calendar reads how much light the Moon shows, whether it is rising or sinking in the sky and which constellation it stands in front of. These movements run independently of one another. Anyone who keeps them apart can read any lunar calendar.

Moon phases: waxing and waning Moon

From new Moon to new Moon takes 29 days, 12 hours and 44 minutes on average, the synodic month. In this time the lit side of the Moon grows to full Moon and then shrinks again. Gardening tradition links this with focal points of work:

• Waxing Moon, from new Moon to full Moon: sap and germination processes increase. Tradition places the sowing of leaf and fruit vegetables in this time.
• Full Moon: herbs and medicinal plants are often harvested now, because essential oils and sugars are held to be high. Pierre Masson sows cereals before full Moon.
• Waning Moon, from full Moon to new Moon: in this picture the forces of growth draw down into the root zone. Planting, pricking out and transplanting are held to be favourable.

In the biodynamic calendar the phase is the second layer; the day type comes first. The calendar does not block the hours around full and new Moon; the day type applies as on any other day. More on this on the page Moon phases in the garden.

Ascending and descending Moon

Alongside the phases, the Moon runs once through the zodiac in a little over 27 days, the sidereal month. On some days it stands high above the horizon and on others low, just as the Sun does over the course of a year. If it climbs higher from day to day, it is called ascending; if it sinks, descending. Ascending, it runs through Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces and Aries; descending, through Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo and Libra. In 2027 the turning points lie in front of Taurus and in front of Scorpio, and they move on slowly over the decades. The calendar lists them as lunar turning points.

Ascending and descending have nothing to do with waxing and waning. A waxing Moon can be descending, a waning one ascending. The confusion is so widespread that several calendars warn about it in their own editions.

Biodynamic practice ties most of its working rules to the Moon's path:

• Ascending Moon: in this picture the sap rises. Time to harvest the parts above ground, to graft and to cut flowers.
• Descending Moon: the forces go into the soil and the root. Time for planting and transplanting, repotting, feeding, compost, soil work and pruning.

For winter pruning Pierre Masson distinguishes: pruning with a descending Moon strengthens weak trees and vines, pruning with an ascending Moon slows growth that is too vigorous. In the southern hemisphere the Moon's path runs the other way round. When the Moon rises for Europe, it sinks for Australia. More on this on the page Ascending and descending Moon.

Root, leaf, flower and fruit days

The day type depends on the constellation in front of which the Moon stands. Maria Thun assigned the twelve constellations of the zodiac to the four elements, and each element to one part of the plant. The three constellations of one element form a triangle in the zodiac, a trine.

The order always stays the same: a fruit day is followed by a root day, then a flower day, then a leaf day, then a fruit day again. In one circuit each day type comes round three times. Miss a root day and you wait about nine days for the next.

The sections differ in length because the constellations differ in width in the sky. Virgo spans 44 degrees of the ecliptic, Cancer 20. The Moon needs a little over three days to cross Virgo and about a day and a half for Cancer. That is why, according to the Dyyna calendar, 2027 has 107 root days and only 78 flower days. The constellation rarely changes at midnight. The calendar therefore gives the time from which the next day type applies.

Which plant belongs to which day

Sowing, planting and tending happen on the day of the plant part for which the plant is grown. The table follows the plant list of the Dyyna calendar app.

For some plants it depends on what you eat. Broccoli, cauliflower and artichokes count as flowers because their buds are harvested. Leek and kohlrabi count as leaf, and so does rhubarb, because the leaf stalks are eaten. Onions and garlic are root plants, strawberries belong to fruit. Most culinary herbs are leaf plants; chamomile and yarrow are grown for their flowers.

Node days and other unfavourable times

Besides the good days, the lunar calendar knows hours in which you do not sow, plant or work the soil, whatever day type currently applies.

The most important are the lunar nodes. The Moon's orbit is tilted by about five degrees against the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun, and crosses it twice in each circuit. From node to node and back takes a little over 27 days, the draconic month. Pierre Masson recommends not sowing, not working the soil, not turning compost and not spraying preparations for a few hours before and after the nodes of the Moon and the planets, and during eclipses. Work in the workshop and shed goes into these hours.

Other times that call for caution according to Pierre Masson:

The biodynamic calendar also lists the occultation of a planet by the Moon as unfavourable, and the days from Good Friday until sunrise on Easter Sunday. More on perigee and on the planetary nodes can be found in the lexicon. Days without such a disturbance and without a change of constellation are marked in the calendar as favourable days. On them the day type applies from morning to evening.

Garden work by the Moon: which job on which day

In the biodynamic calendar almost every garden job has its Moon path and its day type. The table sums up what the linked pages set out in detail. They also give the next suitable days with times.

When harvesting, Pierre Masson also pays attention to the time of day. He harvests parts above ground in the morning, ideally with an ascending Moon, and parts below ground towards evening, ideally with a descending Moon. Root vegetables meant for storage he does not harvest at full Moon, not at perigee and not on a leaf day.

For soil work Masson describes an observation from practice: after cultivation with the Moon in Capricorn, fewer weeds germinate, whereas cultivation with the Moon in Leo wakes many seeds in the soil. Anyone who wants to keep weeds down therefore prefers to hoe on a root day in Capricorn.

Masson builds compost heaps in spring, from March to May, with a descending Moon. It is best spread in autumn, from the descending Moon in August until the end of November.

Timing the preparations: horn manure 500 and horn silica 501

In the biodynamic garden the field spray preparations come alongside sowing and tending. Two rules of thumb apply to them:

• Horn manure (500) is preferably applied with a descending Moon and on root days, in the late afternoon or evening, onto the soil. It is used for soil life and root formation.
• Horn silica (501) is sprayed rather with an ascending Moon, early in the morning as a fine mist onto the plants. It is used for light uptake, ripening and quality of the harvest.

Season and weather come before the Moon. The workbook by Christian von Wistinghausen and his co-authors puts horn manure in autumn and at the start of growth in spring, preferably in the afternoon and evening under a somewhat overcast sky, on freshly worked or covered soil. Horn silica goes onto the green plants early in the morning, ideally while the dew is still on them, and from the start of ripening in the afternoon. On lettuce and cabbage it is sprayed as the heads form. In extreme drought it has proved useful to spray horn manure in the evening and horn silica the next morning.

Pierre Masson advises stirring horn manure only in the evening, not before 5 pm, and not before 4 pm in winter time. He calls spraying with a descending Moon, above all on root days, beneficial but not essential: anyone who waits only for these short windows often never gets round to spraying. In fruit growing and viticulture he points to applying horn silica three times at intervals of about eight days, each time when the Moon stands in front of the constellations that support fruit formation.

How horn manure and horn silica are made, stirred and applied is explained in the articles Applying horn manure 500, Horn silica 501 and Stirring the preparations.

A practical sowing and planting calendar for common crops

The following extract combines day type, Moon path and Moon phase for some common crops in a Central European climate. The months give the usual sowing times; the calendar supplies the suitable days within them.

This is how it becomes a work plan: first look for the next day with the right day type. Then check the Moon path and phase that suit the job. Finally the weather decides. If the soil is too wet or too cold, postpone, even with a good Moon window. If you spray preparations, put horn manure into the soil impulse and horn silica into the light impulse.

How to read a lunar calendar

A biodynamic lunar calendar gives several details for each day. Usually these are:

• the constellation and the day type, with the time from which the next constellation applies
• ascending or descending Moon
• the Moon phase, full and new Moon with time
• the unfavourable hours: nodes, perigee, occultations, eclipses

An example from the Dyyna calendar for October 2026, times for Berlin: Friday 9 October is a root day with a descending Moon and no unfavourable hours. A good day to plant garlic. On Monday 12 October, root applies until 8:49, then flower. Anyone who wants to plant tulip bulbs that day starts after 9 o'clock.

The times apply to one time zone. Printed calendars usually calculate for Central Europe, and some state whether summer time is included. The Dyyna calendar calculates the times for the time zone of your device, and in the southern hemisphere with the Moon's path reversed.

Why lunar calendars show different days

Put two lunar calendars side by side and you often find different day types on the same day. The reason is the basis of calculation. Biodynamic calendars such as Maria Thun's calculate with the constellations the Moon actually stands in front of in the sky. Other calendars work with the signs of the astrological zodiac. Because of precession, the two now lie about 30 degrees apart. Demeter Switzerland describes the result: one calendar has the Moon "in the sign of Gemini", the other at the same moment "in the constellation of Taurus".

The article Why lunar calendars show different constellations explains this in detail.

Building the lunar calendar into your routine

The calendar helps most if you look at it once a week and sort the work accordingly. What has proved itself:

• A weekly look: once a week look at the next seven days, assign the jobs ahead to the day types and check them against the weather each morning.
• Sorting seed: put seed packets into four boxes by day type. On a root day you reach into the root box.
• Using the unfavourable hours: node days suit tool care, ordering seed and planning beds.
• Writing things down: Pierre Masson advises noting the constellation for every job and observing the effect. In winter you can take stock from it.

The rules also apply to raising plants on the windowsill, to raised beds, balcony boxes and houseplants. Sowing follows the day type; pricking out and repotting happen with a descending Moon.

If you prefer the calendar on paper: the Preparations Handbook for the garden year 2026/27 (in German) contains the biodynamic sowing calendar day by day from August 2026 to December 2027, plus the preparation work month by month and space for your own observations. The Dyyna calendar app is being built. It shows which of your own plants are due today, what grows well side by side in the bed and what belongs where next year.

What long-term trials show about biodynamic farming

Since 1978 the DOK trial in Therwil near Basel has compared biodynamic, bio-organic and conventional farming systems on the same field. There the biodynamic plots show higher microbial biomass and soil activity than the conventional ones (Mäder et al., Science 2002). Christoph Brock and colleagues published an overview of research into biodynamic farming and food in the journal Open Agriculture in 2019 (Research in biodynamic food and farming – a review). More on this in the lexicon under Biodynamics and science.

Frequently asked questions about gardening by the Moon

What does gardening by the Moon mean?

Sowing, planting, tending and harvesting are put on the days the lunar calendar names for them. The biodynamic calendar goes by the constellation in front of which the Moon stands (giving root, leaf, flower and fruit days), by the Moon's ascent and descent and by its phases. It also names hours in which you do not sow or plant.

What kind of day is it today: root, leaf, flower or fruit?

That is shown on the dyyna.bio home page, together with the Moon's path, the Moon phase and the time from which the next day type applies. The times are calculated for your own time zone.

Can you plant and sow at full Moon?

Yes. The biodynamic calendar does not block the hours around full Moon; the day type applies. Pierre Masson prefers to sow cereals before full Moon. Root vegetables for storage, on the other hand, he does not harvest at full Moon. If full Moon coincides with the Moon's perigee, he advises against pruning and harvesting flowers.

What do I do if I miss the right day?

The next day of the same type comes after about nine days. If time is pressing because the soil is just right or the young plants are getting too big, the work comes first. Pierre Masson notes that for most jobs the state of the soil and the weather matter more than what the calendar says.

Is an ascending Moon the same as a waxing Moon?

No. Ascending describes the path: the Moon stands higher in the sky from day to day. Waxing describes the light between new Moon and full Moon. The two run independently; a waxing Moon can be descending.

Why do lunar calendars show different days?

Biodynamic calendars calculate with the constellations in the sky, others with the signs of the astrological zodiac. The two now lie about 30 degrees apart. The same day can therefore be a root day in one calendar and a flower day in the other.

Does the lunar calendar also apply in the southern hemisphere?

Yes. The constellation in front of the Moon, and with it the day type, is the same everywhere on Earth; only the times depend on the time zone. The Moon's path is reversed: when the Moon rises for Europe, it sinks for Australia or South America. The Dyyna calendar calculates this for your own location.

Which lunar calendar is best for the garden?

For the biodynamic garden, one that calculates with the constellations, gives the times of the changes and shows the unfavourable hours. The Dyyna calendar does all three, free of charge, for your own time zone.

Sources

• Rudolf Steiner: Spiritual Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture (Agriculture Course), GA 327, Koberwitz 1924.
• Maria Thun: Gärtnern nach dem Mond. Aussaattage, Pflanzzeiten, Erntetage. Kosmos, Stuttgart 2020, ISBN 978-3-440-17205-6.
• Pierre Masson, Vincent Masson: Landwirtschaft, Garten- und Weinbau biodynamisch. AT Verlag, Aarau and Munich 2013, chapters on working with the rhythms and the calendar and on biodynamic compost.
• Christian von Wistinghausen, Wolfgang Scheibe, Hartmut Heilmann, Eckard von Wistinghausen, Uli Johannes König: Anleitung zur Anwendung der Biologisch-Dynamischen Feldspritz- und Düngerpräparate. Workbook no. 2, 4th edition, Verlag Lebendige Erde, Darmstadt 2012.
• Demeter Switzerland: Gärtnern mit dem Mond.
• Paul Mäder et al.: Soil Fertility and Biodiversity in Organic Farming. In: Science 296 (2002), pp. 1694–1697, doi:10.1126/science.1071148.
• Christoph Brock et al.: Research in biodynamic food and farming – a review. In: Open Agriculture 4 (2019), doi:10.1515/opag-2019-0064.
• Wikipedia: Lunar month, Lunar node, Axial precession.
• Day types, number of days in 2027 and the example days in October 2026: Dyyna calendar's own calculation.