Bali's rainy season runs roughly from November to March, and it does not arrive gradually: one week the garden is dusty, the next it is taking an hour of hard rain every afternoon with gusty storms on top. Every year the same two kinds of gardens come out the other side. The prepared ones — trimmed, drained, aerated — grow explosively and look their best by January. The unprepared ones flood, shed palm fronds onto pool decks, lose their lawns to fungus and spend the season on damage control. The difference is a few days of work in October. Here is the checklist we run on every garden we maintain, in the order the jobs matter.
Why October Is the Deadline
Three reasons. First, safety work at height — palm cleaning, deadwood removal — is far easier and safer on dry days, and arborists' calendars fill up as soon as the first storms hit. Second, drainage problems can only be fixed properly in dry ground; digging a soakaway in saturated soil is twice the work for half the result. Third, several jobs (aeration, topdressing, pruning cuts) need a couple of dry weeks to settle before the rain arrives. Leave it to mid-November and half the checklist becomes harder, more expensive, or both.
The Pre-Rains Checklist
Clean the coconut palms and tall trees
Every coconut palm near the house, pool or parking gets stripped of nuts and loose fronds — a falling coconut in a storm gust is the most dangerous object in a Bali garden. Tall trees get deadwood removed and heavy crowns thinned so wind passes through instead of pushing them over. This is the core of our tree and palm care service, and it is the one job we refuse to postpone.
Walk the drainage before it is tested
Clear every channel, gully and gutter outlet of leaves and soil. Then, after the first heavy shower, walk the garden and photograph everywhere water still stands an hour later — those are next dry spell's fixes: regrading, a gravel channel or a soakaway. Garden drainage ties into the same network as irrigation, and we plan both together.
Prepare the lawn to be rained on daily
Aerate compacted areas, topdress hollows where water will pool, and raise the mowing height slightly going into the season. The wet-season mowing rhythm — every 7–10 days, never scalping — is its own discipline; our rainy-season lawn guide covers it in full, and lawn care visits handle it for you.
Deal with the pots and saucers
Move pots off lawns (they kill circles of grass in wet months), lift them onto feet so they drain, and empty or remove every saucer and water-holding ornament — standing water is mosquito breeding within days. Check that hanging baskets and wall pots can actually shed daily rain.
De-slick paths, decks and steps
Algae films that are invisible in the dry season become skating rinks in week two of the rains. Stiff-brush and rinse stone paths, timber decks and pool surrounds now, and again mid-season. Pay attention to shaded stretches — they never dry out between showers.
Prune, feed and mulch the beds
Cut back overgrown shrubs so air moves through the beds (dense, wet foliage is where fungus and snails start), stake anything top-heavy, and refresh mulch so the daily rain does not splash soil onto leaves and walls. A balanced feed in late October lets plants ride the growth surge the rain triggers.
Switch the watering regime
Once the rains settle in, irrigation should mostly be off — overwatered gardens in wet season rot at the roots. Timers get reduced or paused, and covered areas that the rain misses (under eaves, roofed terraces) go onto hand-watering. If your system has no rain override, this is the month to add one.
The Season at a Glance
| When | What the garden needs |
|---|---|
| October | The full checklist above — trees and drainage first, they book out fastest |
| November–December | First-storm damage checks, weekly mowing rhythm begins, watch new drainage points |
| January–February | Peak growth: constant pruning and mowing, fungus patrol on lawns and dense beds, path de-slicking repeat |
| March | Rains ease: repair worn lawn patches, replant gaps, re-cut bed edges for the dry season |
The other thing worth knowing: the rainy season is Bali's planting season. Everything you put in the ground in November establishes on free water and explodes by February — so if you are planning new beds or a lawn extension, the pre-rains window is exactly when to brief it.