RDG Spring 2025 Summary

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Looking at some of our previous posts, we realized that it had been a couple of years since we did a Spring Summary of the RainyDayGarden (RDG)! Some things in the RDG have changed, but much of it has remained the same.

The one big, technically enormous, change was the removal of the three giant Cottonwood trees in the front yard, and their replacement by an adorable/still a baby pear tree.

Other related changes include the planting of a pollinator garden for the bees and other buzzers (some of which are silent), AND adding a self-watering above-ground planter that provides us with all kinds of fresh herbs for our efforts in the RainyDayKitchen!!! So something for the buzzers, and something for us.

There are a lot of other things to catch up on, so let’s get to it 🙂

Jan/Feb/March

2025 saw a rather mild winter. According to the experts, the atmospheric signals were more mixed for that time of year. Meteorologists knew we would have La Nina conditions, and that years with very dry falls and warm Novembers typically resulted in a less-than-average winter in Boston, from a snow perspective. 

However, it was the first colder-than-average winter since 2015. So…not a lot of snow, but we saw plenty of ice on Jamaica Pond!!!

We forewent the Fall clean-up, because we wanted to help the insect population maintain its numbers in the RDG. The RainyDayGarden didn’t get a thick blanket of snow, but got enough to cover all the leaves we left in place…and made things look a bit tidier, at least until Spring.

While we were glad to know that Winter still gets cold in Boston, we got a bit tired of the…brrrry-ness of the place and took an early vacation to miss some of it.

We spent ten days in L.A. in the middle of February. Yes, it was fabulous 🙂

March, with its warmer-than-normal days, was on track to be the only snowless March in over 100 years in Boston! It almost did it if not for a teeny-tiny trace of the white stuff in the very last weekend of the month. Global warming…only in the minds of idiots, and oil companies, is it not real.

We always move the houseplants outside in early Spring and bring them back inside in late Fall. To make that task easier, we began consolidating some of the Jade plants and Thanksgiving cacti into larger pots (8″-12″). Over the years, those plants have flourished, are now rather substantial in weight, and take up a good chunk of the space in front of all available windows (North, South, East).

The one plant we were most eager to know how it fared over the winter was the still-naked pear tree we planted in the spot vacated by the Cottonwood trees.

We were ecstatic to see signs that it made it through the winter and was putting out new growth in anticipation of Spring!

April

There were some crazy April temperature swings in Boston this Spring, ranging from a high of 83°F to lows in the subfreezing range on a few nights. Also included in Boston’s 2025 April was a mid-month storm that dumped 6″ of snow—in April, we tell you!—in some parts of New England. When it was over, this year tied for the 15th warmest April in Boston on record.

The general temperature trend continues toward the warmer side (say it with me, people: “Global Warming is real, and we are causing it”), and Boston followed the broader pattern across the US/the world, where this April was the second-warmest on record. Again, climate change deniers can go suck on a tailpipe.

The Japanese Maple gave us a nice surprise, though. After having the tree in the RainyDayGarden for 25 YEARS, we noticed its tiny, delicate flowers for the first time! Oh, such delight such small things can provide…

Of course, being warmer in April in Boston is not always a negative. Things in RDG started coming up in March and didn’t slow down. The indoor houseplants went outside a full three weeks ahead of schedule. Normally, we would wait until the middle or late May to bring them outside, to acclimate to the Sun. This year, they were outside by the middle of the month!

The pear tree that we planted last Fall, had a much easier time getting going because of the warmer April. We saw signs of life in March and had flowers before the end of the month. Another delight indeed.

May

While April was warm, May was wet in Boston (technically, it was “Wicked Wet” in Boston), ranking as the fifth wettest May in the MA’s history! All of that rain, primed by the warm April start, supercharged the RainyDayGarden.

The lilac, which had a very difficult time last year, made up for its lack of flowering last season with an explosive display this Spring. We could smell the heady scent as soon as we stepped outside.

One of the standouts in May were the Columbines. We now have both the spurred and spurless varieties popping up all over the place. Their complicated-looking flowers are a delight wherever they manage to take hold. 

Seeing the RainyDayGarden fill out is nice, but we have always loved the view of the garden from above. 

With a bird’s eye view, the colors, clusters, and patterns take on a different dimension not visible at ground level.

Generally, it is from this perspective that we decide what to plant where. If we see a gap, we say…”Oh, this plant would be nice there, and the other plant would be perfect over there…” Once in, we tend to let them be. If they make it, they make it. If not, we plant something else 🙂

June

We are excited about our new Pollinator Garden that was put in last year. The Cat Mint and the Fernleaf Yarrow returned a lot fuller this year because of all the May rain. 

We started a pollinator garden in a rougher section of the RainyDayGarden last year and expanded it this year. That patch is really sunny, has medium to poor soil, but is well-drained. Other plants we had tried there had not fared well. The Yarrow, Cat Mint, and Sage appear to be happy with those kinds of conditions.

Another plant species that always does well in the RainyDayGarden this time of the year are the peonys. With the warmer start and all the rain, the scented pink peony harvest was a bumper one. We had a glorious two weeks of flowers everywhere!

Welcome to Summer

The first day of Summer is June 20th. The average June temperature in Boston is around the mid-60ºs. On the 24th this year, it hit 102º! We took advantage of the passive cooling of our cellar (Bostonian for “basement”) and took refuge there for two days as the heat wave raged above.

What plant loves all that heat? The Trench Daylily 🙂 Not everyone likes them, but they are one of our favorites…easy to grow, drought-tolerant, and edible. What more can one ask for?

Have a GREAT Summer…and stay frosty!!!