A big rain event doesn't just water the garden — it reshuffles it. Fungal spores get splashed onto leaves, soil-dwelling pests get flooded up and out, and stressed plants broadcast chemical distress signals that sap-sucking insects home in on. The week after a storm is a scouting week, not a spraying week.
Day 1–2: triage, don't treat
Drain first. Anything standing in water is losing roots by the hour — trench a path out for puddles that persist past a day. Rinse silt off leaves with clean water; a mud coat blocks light and seals in moisture where fungi germinate. Stand broken-but-attached stems back up and splint them. Resist the urge to prune heavily or feed — both add stress.
Day 3–7: the fungal window
Warm nights plus saturated leaves means leaf spot, early blight, and downy mildew show up now. Walk the garden every other day and look at lower, older leaves first — that's where splash-borne disease starts. Clip and trash (never compost) the first spotted leaves, and hold off overhead watering entirely; the soil doesn't need it and the foliage can't afford it.
Day 7–10: the insect rebound
Aphid and whitefly populations often spike a week after storms — their predators recover more slowly than they do. Check growing tips and leaf undersides. A hard water spray and patience usually carries you until lady beetles and hoverflies re-establish. Armyworm moths also ride storm fronts in: fresh ragged holes on greens two weeks after a storm are worth a dusk flashlight inspection.
Log it while it's fresh
Journal what flooded, what shrugged, and what got sick — before/after photos attached to the affected zone turn one bad storm into next year's drainage plan. Patterns you record now are exactly what makes the app's guidance (and someday its trained model) smarter about your yard, not a generic one.