The trailhead
Start here. Where do you want to go?
Every trail below is Sofia 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
8°C / 46°F
Clear · wind 1 km/h · 67% RH
Soil (6 cm)
14°C / 57°F
Most seeds germinate
Hardiness zone
7b
est. from 10-yr extreme low -14°C
Frost window
Apr 27 – Oct 10
~166 frost-free days · first frost in ~3 days
Sun
07:30 – 18:57
sunrise – sunset today
Moon
Waning Crescent
15% lit · anglers' solunar: good · full 2026-10-26
7-day forecast
Europe/Sofia
Wed
Overcast
24° / 6°
dry
Thu
Overcast
26° / 6°
dry
Fri
Overcast
24° / 11°
dry
Sat
Thunderstorms
20° / 12°
8.3 mm
Sun
Thunderstorms
19° / 12°
5.2 mm
Mon
Thunderstorms
21° / 8°
3.7 mm
Tue
Rain
14° / 10°
9.2 mm
Writing your field guide — reading the forecast, the moon and the map…
Overhead · Sofia, Bulgaria
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 30m of light
Sunrise
07:29
Solar noon
13:14
Sunset
19:00
A month from now the day will be 1h 21m 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 3 days to the average first frost (Oct 10).
Next moons
- New MoonOct 10
- First QuarterOct 18
- Full Moon · Hunter's MoonOct 26
- Last QuarterNov 1
Right now · Sofia, Bulgaria
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
3 days
Average first fall frost is around Oct 10. 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
13.8 °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 30m
Losing about 3 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
36 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.
- Working for you
Rain
26.4 mm / 7 days
26.4 mm across 4 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.
- 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
25 wild edibles typically ready in October near Sofia, Bulgaria. 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 →
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 →
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
19 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 Sofia, Bulgaria 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 Sofia, Bulgaria 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
Pannonian Basin & Eastern Plains
Hot summers, cold winters and big skies: the Danube plain, the Hungarian puszta and the black-earth steppe running east into Ukraine.
Regional guide →Your hardiness zone
Zone 7b
Estimated from a 10-year average extreme low of -14°C. What grows, what bites and what to forage across your zone.
Zone guide →Get this guide for Sofia every week
Frost warnings, what's biting, what's ripening. One email, Sunday evening.