Drought in New England Gardens in 2026

The Greater Boston area and southern New Hampshire are in the Severe Drought designation, according to the US Drought Monitor, and all of Coastal New England is in some form of drought.

This time last Spring, almost all of New England was out of drought conditions. We had a wet Spring(25) and previous Fall(24). However, as we got into last August, we started another period of drought, on top of several in previous years. Winter and Spring this year have seen below average rain closer to the coast, while inland seems to be getting their rain.

I had a chance to reach out to Mike Iacono, Chief Scientist at Blue Hill Observatory to see if he had any explanation for what is going on with our precipitation. Here is his response:

“Our local dry conditions have been accumulating since November, though no month since then has been exceedingly dry. On the scale of seasons, the position of the storm track has a lot to do with which areas get more precipitation and which areas get less. For most of the winter, New England was not in the primary storm track, with two notable exceptions (our two large snowstorms in January and February), which alone gave us more than four inches of liquid equivalent precipitation and prevented even worse drought conditions now. As we transition into spring and summer, the type of precipitation changes from large-scale storms that drop precipitation more evenly to smaller-scale convective storms that bring a lot of rain to one town or county and none in the next. Also, cooler weather and on-shore winds near the coast can shut off convective rainfall as it moves eastward. Last night was a good example, which brought good rains to PA, NJ, southern NY, and western CT, and only smaller patches of these storms survived into eastern MA. Their relatively late arrival here in the late evening also helped to shut off the faucet as the daytime heating from the sun (along with other factors) is a strong component that supports convective rainfall. 

Somewhat unexpectedly, the number of days with measurable precipitation at Blue Hill from November 1 to May 31 was 96, which was more than the recent 30-year average of this statistic of 86 days for this seven-month period. So, although total precipitation has been lower than average, we’ve had more frequent occurrences of lighter rainfall, which should be obvious to anyone trying to do their gardening on the weekend recently. “

An interesting insight in his response is that the cooler weather and on-shore winds may be responsible for the continued drought along the coast of New England, while inland New England has no drought conditions.

So, what does this mean for our gardens — it depends. We are in a multi-day warm stretch with temps just hitting 90º and no real rain in the forecast. 

• For lawns, perennial beds and annuals, they are getting less rainfall and will need supplemental irrigation, but it really depends upon the plants you are growing.  Dry loving plants will do fine, as well as established native plants that tend to have much deeper roots. Unirrigated lawns are starting to show stress.
• Bigger, established shrubs, both native and non-native should be fine, for now, provided they didn’t show stress from the cold winter.  Those should be given periodic deep soaks. If they are on an irrigation system put them on a different program so they are watered less often but much longer and deeper.
• Trees are an area we are seeing some significant issues from the number of droughts over recent years. Especially public and street trees. I have recommended over recent years to deeply soak your bigger trees once in a season to recharge the moisture several feet into the root zone. If you have some ornamentals or bigger trees that didn’t leaf out well or are exhibiting some dieback, place a hose several feet away from the trunk and let the water trickle at 20% for several hours and then move it to the other side of the tree and repeat. A couple hours each for a medium sized tree and twice as long for a big, mature shade tree. Spray irrigation systems only provide water to the top inches or maybe a foot, which is dangerous for trees as the roots come to the surface and create trees intolerant of drought.

This link goes to previous pieces I have written on watering, and it has links in it with even more info.  Each year I seem to post about watering because it is the greatest challenge in our gardens. Most plants die because they are not watered properly.  Plants that die from disease and insects often start their decline from poor watering practices.  I spend a lot of time with clients changing their irrigation systems and showing how to shift it throughout the season. I have also worked with clients who don’t have irrigation systems to shift their plants to a native palette or plants more tolerant of drier conditions.

An important note is that ALL new plants require supplemental water when they are installed in a garden or transplanted. A lot of people tell me they thought native plants were better suited to our weather and didn’t need water.  ALL new plants need some water until they are established.