The trailhead
Start here. Where do you want to go?
Every trail below is Reykjavík 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
Peak photosynthesis and peak water loss. Beds dry fast and transplants sulk.
- 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
5°C / 40°F
Clear · wind 7 km/h · 80% RH
Soil (6 cm)
3°C / 38°F
Too cold for most seeds
Hardiness zone
7b
est. from 10-yr extreme low -13°C
Frost window
May 7 – Oct 13
~159 frost-free days · first frost in ~7 days
Sun
07:51 – 18:39
sunrise – sunset today
Moon
Waning Crescent
15% lit · anglers' solunar: good · full 2026-10-26
7-day forecast
Atlantic/Reykjavik
Tue
Overcast
8° / 2°
dry
Wed
Drizzle
8° / 4°
0.3 mm
Thu
Rain
9° / 6°
5.5 mm
Fri
Rain
8° / 5°
3.57 mm
Sat
Drizzle
7° / 4°
3.5 mm
Sun
Drizzle
7° / 4°
12.6 mm
Mon
Rain
9° / 6°
16 mm
Writing your field guide — reading the forecast, the moon and the map…
Overhead · Reykjavík, Iceland
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
10h 48m of light
Sunrise
07:51
Solar noon
13:15
Sunset
18:40
A month from now the day will be 3h 14m 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 · Reykjavík, Iceland
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.
- Holding things back
Soil warmth
3.5 °C
Below 5 °C almost nothing germinates and roots barely drink. Seed sown now sits and rots.
Seeds read soil temperature, not the calendar. Six centimetres down is where the decision gets made.
- Quiet right now
Day length
10h 48m
Losing about 6 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.
- Holding things back
Heat units
0 GDD / 7 days
Almost no heat accumulating. Warm-season crops are idling, whatever the calendar says.
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
41.5 mm / 7 days
41.5 mm across 5 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.
- Holding things back
Pollination
0 of 7 flying days
No good flying days in the next week — too cold, too wet or too windy. Squash and early fruit may need a paintbrush.
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
18 wild edibles typically ready in October near Reykjavík, Iceland. Seasons shift a week or two with the weather — check each one before you go.
Has a dangerous look-alikeTreeSeptember – NovemberJuniper berries
Juniperus communis
Low spiky evergreen with needles in whorls of three, each with a white stripe on top; the 'berries' are fleshy blue cones that take two, sometimes three, years to ripen — so green and blue ones hang together.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: David Anderson · CC BY 4.0
FruitSeptember – NovemberRose hips
Rosa spp.
The red-orange fruit left after a wild rose blooms, topped with a dried five-pointed crown of sepals.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Tom Norton · CC BY 4.0
BerryAugust – OctoberRowan berries
Sorbus aucuparia
A slim tree with smooth silvery-grey bark and feathery leaves of many toothed leaflets in pairs; big flat clusters of scarlet-orange berries, each about 1 cm (⅜ in) across with a tiny black five-pointed star at the tip.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Therese Phillips · CC BY 4.0
BerryAugust – OctoberSea buckthorn
Hippophae rhamnoides
A thorny shrub with narrow, silvery-grey, willow-like leaves and branches packed with bright orange berries 6–8 mm (¼ in) across, from late summer into winter. Only female bushes fruit.
How to know it & its look-alikes →
Has a dangerous look-alikeMushroomSeptember – NovemberYellowfoot (winter chanterelle)
Craterellus tubaeformis
A small brown funnel-shaped cap 1–4 cm (½–1½ in) across, often with a hole down the middle, on a hollow, yellow to orange stem; underneath, pale greyish-yellow forked ridges, not gills, running down the stem.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Christine Young · CC BY 4.0
MushroomAugust – NovemberBlack trumpet (horn of plenty)
Craterellus cornucopioides
A thin, hollow, sooty grey-black trumpet up to 10 cm (4 in) tall, cap and stem all one piece; the outer surface is paler ash-grey and smooth or faintly wrinkled, with no gills.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Alan Rockefeller · CC BY 4.0
12 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 Reykjavík, Iceland 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
FishJun–MarRoach
Rutilus rutilus
Silver with a blue-green back, bright red eyes, reddish lower fins, and a dorsal fin set directly above the pelvic fins.
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 Reykjavík, Iceland 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
Nordic & Baltic Boreal
Spruce, pine and birch, a hundred thousand lakes, a short bright summer and a long dark winter.
Regional guide →Your hardiness zone
Zone 7b
Estimated from a 10-year average extreme low of -13°C. What grows, what bites and what to forage across your zone.
Zone guide →Get this guide for Reykjavík every week
Frost warnings, what's biting, what's ripening. One email, Sunday evening.