The trailhead
Start here. Where do you want to go?
Every trail below is Port Louis 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
Above about 32 °C tomatoes drop their flowers and lettuce turns bitter.
- 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
20°C / 69°F
Partly cloudy · wind 14 km/h · 87% RH
Soil (6 cm)
25°C / 77°F
Warm-season seeds go
Hardiness zone
13a
est. from 9-yr extreme low 17°C
Frost window
Rare – Rare
~366 frost-free days (avg)
Sun
05:46 – 18:09
sunrise – sunset today
Moon
Waning Crescent
15% lit · anglers' solunar: good · full 2026-10-26
7-day forecast
Indian/Mauritius
Wed
Overcast
31° / 20°
dry
Thu
Drizzle
29° / 20°
0.5 mm
Fri
Overcast
32° / 20°
dry
Sat
Partly cloudy
31° / 20°
dry
Sun
Partly cloudy
31° / 21°
dry
Mon
Drizzle
29° / 22°
5.2 mm
Tue
Drizzle
27° / 20°
1.2 mm
Writing your field guide — reading the forecast, the moon and the map…
Overhead · Port Louis, Mauritius
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 23m of light
Sunrise
05:46
Solar noon
11:58
Sunset
18:09
A month from now the day will be 0h 32m 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 · Port Louis, Mauritius
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.
- Quiet right now
Frost
366 frost-free days
Frost is rare here. Coldest night in the next week: 19.9 °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
25.3 °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 23m
Gaining about 1 minutes 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
106 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.
- Worth watching
Rain
6.9 mm / 7 days
6.9 mm across 2 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
6 of 7 flying days
6 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
4 wild edibles typically ready in October near Port Louis, Mauritius. Seasons shift a week or two with the weather — check each one before you go.
FruitJune – OctoberTamarind
Tamarindus indica
A big, dense, evergreen tree with feathery leaves of many small paired leaflets (no single leaflet at the tip) and small yellow flowers streaked with orange or red. The fruit is a brown, slightly curved pod with a thin, brittle shell over sticky, brown, sweet-sour pulp and one to six glossy brown seeds; African pods are the short kind.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Maria Janeiro · CC BY 4.0
FruitMay – OctoberMonkey orange (green monkey orange)
Strychnos spinosa
A small, often spiny tree with opposite, rounded, glossy leaves showing three to five veins running from the base. The fruit is large, round and hard, with a woody shell that turns from green (often speckled) to yellow as it ripens; inside, many hard brown seeds packed in sweet-sour, brown, edible pulp.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Shaun Swanepoel · CC BY 4.0
GreenOctober – MarchSheep sorrel
Rumex acetosella
Small arrow-shaped leaves with two backward-pointing lobes at the base, on a wiry reddish stem. Sharply lemony taste.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Kieran Hanrahan · CC BY 4.0
GreenApril – NovemberChickweed
Stellaria media
Sprawling mats with small opposite oval leaves and a single line of fine hairs running up one side of the stem, switching sides at each leaf pair. Stretch the stem: an elastic inner core.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Douglas Goldman · CC BY-SA 4.0
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 Port Louis, Mauritius 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.
FishYear-roundNile tilapia
Oreochromis niloticus
Deep-bodied and grey-brown with faint bars, and the tell: regular dark vertical stripes right across the tail fin. Breeding males turn reddish, especially on the fins.
Where and how to catch it →Photo: Pål A. Olsvik · CC BY 4.0
FishSep–AprMozambique tilapia (blue kurper)
Oreochromis mossambicus
Deep-bodied and dull silvery-olive with a few dark blotches along the side and no regular stripes on the tail. Breeding males turn black with a white throat, red-edged fins and a pointed, duck-bill snout.
Where and how to catch it →Photo: Wynand Uys · CC BY 4.0
FishYear-roundGiant trevally (GT)
Caranx ignobilis
A thick, powerful jack with a steep, blunt head, hard scutes along the base of the tail, and silver-grey to black colouring; mature males can be almost black.
Where and how to catch it →Photo: Christopher Mark · 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.
In the garden now · October
Who else is working the garden
The insects and soil life out near Port Louis, Mauritius in October. Most of them are on your side — learn the few that aren't before you reach for anything.
PollinatorSep–AprHoney bee
Apis mellifera
Golden-brown, banded, furry thorax, and pollen packed onto the hind legs in visible baskets.
What it does in the garden →
PollinatorOct–MarHoverfly
Syrphidae
Wasp-striped but a true fly: two wings not four, huge eyes, and it hovers dead still in mid-air.
What it does in the garden →Photo: Anne Parker · CC BY 4.0
BeneficialOct–AprLady 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 →
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
Madagascar & Indian Ocean Islands
Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion, the Comoros and Seychelles: islands of rainforest, dry spiny forest and reef found nowhere else.
Regional guide →Get this guide for Port Louis every week
Frost warnings, what's biting, what's ripening. One email, Sunday evening.