Gardening in Arusha
Arusha · East African Highlands & Great Lakes · hardiness zone 12a
New here? Start with the gardening introNow
18°C · Drizzle
Today
26° / 17°
Soil 6 cm
22°C
First frost
Rare
Weather read at 1:32 a.m..
The garden year · Arusha
Growing all year
No frost to beat: the rains decide when to sow, and the dry season when to water.
- Sow with the rains
- Mulch and shade seedlings
- Water through the dry season
- Watch for pests
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today
There is no frost here: the rains, not the cold, set the garden year. Sow as the rains arrive, and keep a watered bed through the dry season.
Plant the main crops with the next rains; mulch and shade seedlings in the heat.
Writing your field guide — reading the forecast, the moon and the map…
In the garden now · October
Who else is working the garden
The insects and soil life out near Arusha, Tanzania in October. Most of them are on your side — learn the few that aren't before you reach for anything.
PollinatorMar–OctHoney bee
Apis mellifera
Golden-brown, banded, furry thorax, and pollen packed onto the hind legs in visible baskets.
What it does in the garden →
BeneficialApr–OctLady beetle
Coccinellidae
The adult everyone knows; the larva is the useful one — a spiky, alligator-shaped grey-and-orange creature that looks like a pest.
What it does in the garden →
BeneficialApr–OctGround beetle
Carabidae
Shiny black or bronze, fast-running, with grooved wing covers and long legs.
What it does in the garden →Photo: Gavin Slater · CC BY 4.0
Soil lifeMar–Jun, Sep–NovEarthworm
Lumbricus terrestris
Familiar; look for the saddle-like clitellum a third of the way down a mature worm.
What it does in the garden →Photo: José Garrido · CC BY 4.0
PestApr–Jun, Sep–OctSlugs
Gastropoda
The silvery slime trail and ragged holes in the middle of leaves, not at the edges.
What it does in the garden →Photo: Casey H. Richart · CC BY 4.0
Photographs are research-grade observations from iNaturalist, each credited to its photographer. Ranges and timing are typical, not guaranteed — 87 species are covered across North America, Europe and Africa.
Behind this week's gardening
The day, the ground and the sky over Arusha
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 · Arusha, Tanzania
The sky over the garden
The two clocks nothing on the ground can argue with: the length of the day, and the phase of the moon.
The sun
12h 09m of light
Sunrise
06:16
Solar noon
12:21
Sunset
18:25
A month from now the day will be 0h 06m longer. 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
Summer 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 · Arusha, Tanzania
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.
- Quiet right now
Frost
366 frost-free days
Frost is rare here. Coldest night in the next week: 15.8 °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
22.5 °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.
- Working for you
Day length
12h 09m
Gaining about under a minute of daylight a day. Every extra minute is growth you don't have to pay for.
The one thing weather can't change. Plants count photoperiod to decide when to bolt, bulb, flower and go dormant.
- Working for you
Heat units
72 GDD / 7 days
Steady heat. Tomatoes set fruit, corn stretches, and pest generations turn over on schedule.
Growing degree days: the running total of warmth above 10 °C. Crops and insects both run on this clock rather than on dates.
- Working for you
Rain
56.6 mm / 7 days
56.6 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.
- Worth watching
Pollination
3 of 7 flying days
3 decent flying days coming. Bees work between about 13 °C and 38 °C, in wind under 30 km/h, and not in rain.
A third of what you eat needs an insect to have visited first. Bees fly on temperature and wind, not on your schedule.
Read and watch with your kids
All the books and videos for Arusha →Stories about where you live
The gardening note for Arusha, every week
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