Foraging in Mogadishu
Banaadir · East African Coast · hardiness zone 13b
New here? Start with the foraging introNow
25°C · Partly cloudy
Today
30° / 24°
Rain, 7 days
29 mm
Season
Fall
Weather read at 1:31 a.m..
Writing your field guide — reading the forecast, the moon and the map…
Behind this week's foraging
The day, the ground and the sky over Mogadishu
The kindest day for transplanting there is, and the safest for sowing.
- Ground beetlebest now — Running the soil surface after dark, taking slugs, cutworms and larvae. One of the best predators a garden has.
- Earthwormbest now — At the surface after dark and in wet weather, pulling leaves down into the burrow.
Overhead · Mogadishu, Somalia
The sky over the woods
The two clocks nothing on the ground can argue with: the length of the day, and the phase of the moon.
The sun
12h 05m of light
Sunrise
05:44
Solar noon
11:46
Sunset
17:49
A month from now the day will be 0h 03m shorter. Enough light for steady growth.
The moon
Waning Crescent
15% lit · waning · day 26 of 29.5
- Next full
- Oct 26 · 20d
- Hunter's Moon
- Next new
- Oct 10 · 4d
- Darkest nights
Planting by the moon: Last quarter to new: a resting phase — weed, prune, harvest, turn compost and prepare beds.
Anglers' solunar rating: good — the tradition says fish feed hardest in the days either side of new and full, and around moonrise and moonset. The evidence is mixed; light and weather matter more.
Turn of the season
Winter solstice
Dec 21 · 76 days away
Frost is rare here — most years see none, or a night or two at most.
Next moons
- New MoonOct 10
- First QuarterOct 18
- Full Moon · Hunter's MoonOct 26
- Last QuarterNov 1
Right now · Mogadishu, Somalia
Forces at work
Nothing here is a guess. Each of these is read from this week's forecast and this location's climate record, and each one is pushing the season one way or the other.
- Working for you
Decay
29.4 °C soil · 28.8 mm
Warm and damp: the fastest decay of the year. Compost cooks, leaf mould breaks down, worms work the surface — and mushrooms fruit two to seven days after a soaking rain.
Fungi and bacteria turning last season into next season's soil. The same warm, wet window that runs a compost heap also fruits the mushrooms.
- Working for you
Rain
28.8 mm / 7 days
28.8 mm across 7 days. About right; leave the hose coiled.
Sets the pace for everything: germination, fungal fruiting, slug nights, and how a river runs for the next three days.
- Quiet right now
Frost
366 frost-free days
Frost is rare here. Coldest night in the next week: 23.8 °C.
The hard edge of the growing season. Ice inside a leaf ruptures its cells — one night ends a tomato and sweetens a parsnip.
- Working for you
Soil warmth
29.4 °C
Warm enough for beans, corn, squash, cucumber and transplanted tomato and pepper. Roots run hard at this temperature.
Seeds read soil temperature, not the calendar. Six centimetres down is where the decision gets made.
- Quiet right now
Day length
12h 05m
Losing about under a minute of daylight a day.
The one thing weather can't change. Plants count photoperiod to decide when to bolt, bulb, flower and go dormant.
- Worth watching
The moon
Waning Crescent · 15%
Waning, 26 days old. Full moon in 19 days. Anglers' solunar rating: good (a tradition).
It moves water — in the sea, in a lake's edge, and, by long tradition, in the sap of a plant. Fish feed hardest on the days around new and full.
Read and watch with your kids
All the books and videos for Mogadishu →Stories about where you live
The foraging note for Mogadishu, every week
One email, Sunday evening. Unsubscribe anytime.
