SOLVED: Can A Garden Get Too Much Rain?

There are many gardening questions that seem obvious to answer at first, but as you dig deeper – no pun intended – into them, they become more complex. Here, we are going to tackle one of those questions.

What we’re asking today is “Can a garden get too much rain?”. Rain is a welcome sight to many gardeners. You can even store it and use it later!

Yet, if you’re peering out of your conservatory right now and your cat is using your plant pots as floats, the answer is yes. But more generically speaking, how much rain is good and when should your gardening alarm bells be ringing? 

Why Do Our Gardens Need Rain?

Our gardens need rainwater for nutrients and our plants, vegetables and lawns need it to help them grow healthier. So, how necessary is it when most gardeners own a watering can? Not that we can turn the rain off anyway - but why would you want to when you hear how rainwater is so much better for your garden than regular tap water.

Our tap water contains chlorine and fluoride. Both of these can be damaging to plants. Too much tap water and your plants may become discoloured or look burnt and spotty. Tap water can also include sodium which is especially detrimental to soil structure.

On the other hand, rainwater makes gardens look much greener and much healthier. This is because rainwater provides gardens with nitrogen – the key ingredient for making gardens look a healthy deep green. 

Rainwater also has a host of other benefits including the release of micronutrients such as copper, zinc, iron and manganese. All of these things are significantly important when it comes to growing healthy plants.

We’re not going to pretend it’s that simple. The relationship between sulphur and your garden is a complex one and still being investigated. Just be aware that acid rain isn't going to require you buying each of your plants an umbrella

What About Acid Rain?

Acid rain is caused when there is a lot of pollution in the atmosphere. If you live near power plants and other heavy-polluting premises there is an increased chance that you will get acid rain – even if you don’t know about it.

You'll be shocked to know that acid rain is also excellent for gardens. Is this the extremely thin silver lining to pollution? Maybe that’s pushing it but it’s true. Acid rain contains high levels of sulphur and sulphur just so happens to be key for healthy plant growth. In fact, most British soil doesn’t have enough sulphur content.

To summarise then, the answer is yes – your garden can get too much rain. However, your garden can also withstand much more rainwater than regular tap water from your trusty watering can

So, Let’s Get to The Reason You’re Here… Can A Garden Get Too Much Rain?

The short answer is definitely yes, and the longer answer is a bit of a grumble. 

For the reasons we already explained, your plants will prefer more rainwater than tap water. Rainwater has more oxygen than tap water. By including more oxygen, rainwater is safer than tap water and gives plant significantly more breathing space – this time pun intended - when it comes to reaching a dangerous level of oversaturation. 

However, the biggest problem with excessive rain is that it can cause your gardens to grow diseases instead of beautiful arrangements. Here are a few possible diseases that could occur…

• Anthracnose – this is sometimes known as leaf blight and will attack evergreen trees. To combat this disease, you’ll need to prune and remove infected areas.
• Fire blight – this bacterial disease mostly affects apple trees and other fruit bearing trees. It will prevent healthy fruit being grown.
• Apple scab – if you see leaves curling backwards and blackening after heavy and prolonged rain, there is a chance your garden has this disease.
• Powdery mildew – you’ll be able to notice the common powdery mildew due to the white growth on plant leaves. A big problem with this disease is that it can easily spread with a gust of wind. Sunlight is best to treat this disease.

These sorts of diseases will occur when rainwater becomes excessive. The perfect balance would be to get around one inch of rainfall each week. If you start getting more then you should start checking how reliable your drainage is and try to see if you can provide any shelter for your plants.

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Professionalism As Priority: The Home Logic Way

Once it has stopped raining you may want to consider enhancing the surfaces of your garden. You may also want to get rid of any standing water first!

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