Why You Shouldn't Water Your Garden After Heavy Rain

27 September 2026 · Virtual Micro Gardening team · All posts

It's one of the first things new players learn the hard way. The camera sees heavy rain, you water your plot anyway, and the game docks you energy and points. It isn't being mean. It's copying what happens in a real garden.

Roots need air as well as water

Healthy soil is full of tiny air pockets. Plant roots take oxygen from those gaps. After heavy rain, the gaps fill with water. Add more and the soil becomes waterlogged. Roots start to suffocate, and they can rot if it goes on for long.

Too much water washes food away

Nutrients such as nitrogen dissolve in water. When more water pours through the soil than the plants can use, it carries those nutrients down past the roots. This is called leaching. Overwatering can starve a plant while drowning it.

Wet soil invites trouble

Constantly damp ground encourages fungal diseases and brings out slugs and snails, and walking on it squashes it flat. Compacted soil drains even worse next time, and the cycle repeats.

So when should you water?

• Push a finger a few centimetres into the soil. If it's damp, wait.
• Water in the early morning or evening, when less is lost to evaporation.
• Water deeply and less often, rather than a little every day. It encourages deeper roots.
• After a storm, check for damage and blocked drains before reaching for the watering can.

How the game knows it rained

Our webcam's image analysis looks for the tall, thin streaks that falling rain leaves between one photo and the next (here's how). When it's confident there was heavy rain, the garden is flagged. For the next 24 hours, watering suggestions are switched off, and you're more likely to get a suggestion to hold off watering or check the drainage, which is exactly what a good gardener would do.

You can see the rainy days for yourself in the garden diary.