Here's a checklist of six widely held gardening assumptions for you to measure against your own practices. The trick to a lifetime of effective gardening is to stay flexible and be willing to change the things you do, based on your own observations and the guidance of modern research. Remember, if you don't keep growing, your plants may be suffering too. Watering on a sunny day can burn plant leaves. A good gardener is a good observer.
Thunderstorms arise every summer with amazing speed and the sun often comes out afterward.
Plants are well adapted to deal with this. You'll never find burn damage on leaves after watering plants with a sprinkler of any kind. A good reason not to water at midday, however, is that the moisture you supply will be lost much more quickly to heat or wind then. Water promptly whenever you see that plants need it, but the ideal time is in the morning when the water has a chance to drip from the foliage and soak through mulches. According to the Lawn Institute, thatch is produced more by the misuse of strong fertilizers and pesticides than by clippings alone.