It snowed last night. I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s Montana weather, right? But just when I was secretly congratulating myself on a) lucking out even though I planted stuff slightly before our average last frost date (May 23), and b) the deer not figuring out that I had some tasty new plants unguarded in our backyard, what happens? The deer discovered my tomato plants the day before temperatures dipped into the danger zone.

Said tomato plants and a few other things in my garden are not happy with the weather. My co-Master Gardener friend Kim reminded me that their darkening leaves are a sign of iron deficiency, caused by the cool [cold] soil temps. So now I have to find something to fertilize them with, assuming they made it through the night. I covered them last night, but was too depressed to make the slushy trek out the garden to check on them this morning.

One other thing I remembered this morning: I moved my ‘warm’ seedlings outside a couple of weeks ago, and sort of left them. They’re not really doing much of anything. I transplanted chamomile into the garden and echinacea into pots last week (back when it was still spring) and they’re looking better. I used Organic Choice garden soil, which has some compost I think. But my viola, thyme and basil aren’t happy because they’re still in sterile starting medium. Doh! If they’re still alive, I’ll trek out there tonight and transplant them as well. Hopefully that will perk them up. I was really excited about the basil ‘Minette’ seeds, and haven’t been impressed so far.