The trailhead
Start here. Where do you want to go?
Every trail below is Cork right now — this month's fish, this week's soil and frost, what's ready in the woods, tonight's sky. Tap a place on the map to see what's waiting there, or let us plan a trail for today.
Tap a place on the map to see what’s there — tap it again to go.Point at a place on the map, or tap it, to see what’s there.
The map faces south, like you at midday: the sun comes up on your left, in the east, and goes down on your right, in the west.
Pick your trail for today
Who's coming?
How long have you got?
What do you feel like?
Answer any of these and we’ll draw you a trail on the map — one stop for an hour, two for half a day, three for all day.
Today at the trailhead
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.
Right now
11°C / 52°F
Drizzle · wind 13 km/h · 89% RH
Soil (6 cm)
14°C / 58°F
Most seeds germinate
Hardiness zone
9b
est. from 10-yr extreme low -3°C
Frost window
May 10 – Oct 13
~156 frost-free days · first frost in ~7 days
Sun
07:43 – 19:00
sunrise – sunset today
Moon
Waning Crescent
15% lit · anglers' solunar: good · full 2026-10-26
7-day forecast
Europe/Dublin
Tue
Drizzle
16° / 11°
1.9 mm
Wed
Drizzle
14° / 9°
1.6 mm
Thu
Rain
16° / 8°
4 mm
Fri
Drizzle
16° / 10°
1.8 mm
Sat
Overcast
13° / 10°
dry
Sun
Drizzle
16° / 6°
7.5 mm
Mon
Drizzle
17° / 13°
1.2 mm
Writing your field guide — reading the forecast, the moon and the map…
Overhead · Cork, Ireland
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
11h 17m of light
Sunrise
07:43
Solar noon
13:22
Sunset
19:00
A month from now the day will be 1h 54m 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
About 7 days to the average first frost (Oct 13).
Next moons
- New MoonOct 10
- First QuarterOct 18
- Full Moon · Hunter's MoonOct 26
- Last QuarterNov 1
Right now · Cork, Ireland
Forces at work right now
Frost, soil warmth, light, rain and the moon set the pace for the garden, the water and the woods alike. Every reading below comes from this location's own forecast and climate record.
- Worth watching
Frost
7 days
Average first fall frost is around Oct 13. Nothing you sow now will finish unless it beats that.
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
14.5 °C
Good for brassicas, beets, chard, carrots and potatoes. Wait on the heat crops.
Seeds read soil temperature, not the calendar. Six centimetres down is where the decision gets made.
- Quiet right now
Day length
11h 17m
Losing about 4 minutes 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
Heat units
16 GDD / 7 days
Slow accumulation — cool-season crops are happy, corn and melons are waiting.
Growing degree days: the running total of warmth above 10 °C. Crops and insects both run on this clock rather than on dates.
- Worth watching
Rain
18.0 mm / 7 days
18.0 mm across 6 days — short of the ~25 mm a week most beds want. Top up the thirstiest rows.
Sets the pace for everything: germination, fungal fruiting, slug nights, and how a river runs for the next three days.
- Working for you
Pollination
4 of 7 flying days
4 good flying days ahead. Open flowers will get worked — leave a shallow water dish out and hold off on any spray until dusk.
A third of what you eat needs an insect to have visited first. Bees fly on temperature and wind, not on your schedule.
In season now · October
What you can pick right now
30 wild edibles typically ready in October near Cork, Ireland. Seasons shift a week or two with the weather — check each one before you go.
FruitSeptember – OctoberHawthorn berries
Crataegus spp.
Thorny small tree with lobed leaves and clusters of small red haws, each holding one to five hard stones. Cut one open to see the stones.
How to know it & its look-alikes →
NutOctober – NovemberSweet chestnut
Castanea sativa
A big tree with long, glossy leaves edged with sharp, regular teeth, and bark that twists in spiralling ridges on old trunks. The nuts come in twos and threes inside a husk covered in dense, needle-sharp spines; each is glossy brown, flat on one side, with a pointed tuft at the tip.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: John Powers · CC BY 4.0
FruitSeptember – OctoberWild and abandoned apples
Malus pumila
An apple tree gone feral: small, spotty, often superb fruit. Every seedling tree is genetically unique.
How to know it & its look-alikes →
NutSeptember – NovemberAcorns
Quercus spp.
Collect brown, freshly fallen nuts with no weevil holes; float them in water and discard the ones that swim.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Douglas Goldman · CC BY-SA 4.0
Has a dangerous look-alikeMushroomAugust – OctoberGiant puffball
Calvatia gigantea
Smooth white ball, football-sized or larger. Slice it top to bottom: it must be pure white and uniform like a marshmallow, with no gills, no outline of a mushroom, no yellowing.
How to know it & its look-alikes →
MushroomSeptember – NovemberHen of the woods (maitake)
Grifola frondosa
A big grey-brown rosette of overlapping spoon-shaped fronds on a branching white stem, with pores underneath.
How to know it & its look-alikes →
24 more in season here — see the full foraging calendar →
Photographs are research-grade observations from iNaturalist, each credited to its photographer. They show a typical specimen, not every variation — never identify from a photo alone. Confirm with a regional field guide or an experienced forager before you eat anything wild.
In the water now · October
What's biting
The sport fish active near Cork, Ireland in October — where they hold, how to know one on the line, and the tactic that usually works. Check your licence and the current limits before you go.
FishJun–MarEuropean perch
Perca fluviatilis
Five to eight dark bars on a greenish flank, bright red-orange lower fins, and a spiny first dorsal fin with a black blotch at the back.
Where and how to catch it →Photo: Дауд Арсанукаев · CC BY 4.0
FishJun–MarZander
Sander lucioperca
Slim and glassy-eyed, with grey-brown saddles, rows of black spots on the spiny dorsal fin, and long fang-like canine teeth.
Where and how to catch it →Photo: Tomas Broucek · CC BY 4.0
FishApr–OctCommon carp
Cyprinus carpio
Big bronze scales (or the scattered big scales of a mirror carp), a long dorsal fin, and two pairs of barbels at a rubbery, tube-like mouth.
Where and how to catch it →
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.
In the garden now · October
Who else is working the garden
The insects and soil life out near Cork, Ireland 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
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.
Your ecological region
Atlantic Europe
Mild, wet and windy: the Gulf Stream keeps winters soft and summers cool from Ireland and Britain to Brittany, the Low Countries and Denmark.
Regional guide →Your hardiness zone
Zone 9b
Estimated from a 10-year average extreme low of -3°C. What grows, what bites and what to forage across your zone.
Zone guide →Get this guide for Cork every week
Frost warnings, what's biting, what's ripening. One email, Sunday evening.