Digit lives very close to Coeur d' Alene, and when he sees this, he will SO be along to give you any and all advice you're seeking! Brace yourself! I'm pretty sure he'll be answering questions you haven't even thought of yet!

Welcome to RMG,
Skybird

"actual" climate zone: Coeur d'Alene may have recently become more of a zone 6 as the Arbor Day folks say. However, away from the lake, it was -18 in December last year. That is "firmly" within zone 5.

what fruit trees grow there: apricot, peach, plum, apple, pear. I'm not sure if there are any commercial fruit orchards near C'dA at the present. In Otis Orchards, the last commercial orchard is less than 5 acres. When I moved here, the cannery in Post Falls was still making Coeur d'Alene Apple Butter. It was so good! The local orchards could not compete with those along the east slope of the Cascades in central Washington.

garden timeframe: May 6th to Oct 5th for 151 frost-free days in Coeur d'Alene. Communities on the west side of the valley and to the north have significantly shorter growing seasons. Coeur d'Alene Lake is a good-sized body of water and helps to moderate temperatures around the lake and on the east side of the valley.

and soil characteristics: Glaciers extended down out of what is now Canada during the last ice age. One lobe of ice blocked the Clarks Fork River. Water built up in western Montana in what has been called Glacial Lake Missoula. When the ice dam broke, which it apparently did repeatedly, the resultant floods deposited hundreds of feet of gravel on the floor of the valley. Wind blown loess contributes some soil to this massive gravel deposit. There is a large and rapidly-moving aquifer thru this gravel.

Steve

No limits around here! Well, very few limits!
Skybird

120 years ago, as Americans began to settle this part of the world, I don't know whether growing sweet corn would have been possible for them. My mother talks about her family growing "Country Gentleman" but not here where she was born but in southern Oregon where she grew up.

I've been reading a little about heirloom sweet corn lately. Country Gentleman is a 90 day variety. It was introduced in 1890, and there is simply no way that a 90 day corn could reach maturity in the open garden here.

Golden Bantam is supposed to be a 78 day sweet corn. Burpee introduced it in 1902. I've grown Golden Bantam but it would not mature in my garden when I lived near Bayview, at the south end of Pend Oreille Lake. My garden was at about 2,500 feet elevation in the valley but just north of the mountains near Chilco. It seemed that there was no way I could have sweet corn except by growing Polar Vee.

It's about the same thing with longer season tomato varieties. I grew Sub-Arctics then.

My gardens are at the 2,000 foot level now and I grow varieties that are rated up to 75 days. The last time I tried an 80 day tomato, there was 1 ripe tomato on each plant at the very end of the season. (I'll just say that tomatoes ripening on my kitchen counter are LESS of a reason for celebration than a sun-ripened fruit enjoyed on a pleasant day in the garden. :o)

Steve

Before moving out to 2,500 feet, years ago, I was looking at some property near the south end of Coeur d'Alene Lake. It was not far from the St. Maries River.

Then as now, gardening was important to me and I was under the mistaken impression that if I stayed below 3,000 feet - there would be a reasonable growing season. And, this nice level land was somewhere around 2,800 feet with plenty of southern exposure.

We decided to camp there overnight. By the next morning, the left-over coffee was frozen in the pot sitting out by the cold campfire. It was Independence Day weekend.

Steve's digits

So, you're telling me that most plants grow, but tomatoes and corn have a hard time maturing with the shorter season and that I'm a prime candidate for the short grow area? Bummer.

Do you know if there are local farmer's markets? Are you in CdA or Post Falls?

There's a farmers market with locations just north of Cd'A and downtown. Also, a farmers' market just across the border in Liberty Lake.

Don't take the comments about sweet corn and tomatoes too hard. There are plenty of varieties you can grow. Just don't assume that ALL will be useful to you - go with the short-season/germinate-in-cold-soil choices.

Steve

Freeze/Frost Occurrence Data (pdf)

Maybe the choice of the term "frost free" isn't well advised at a 50% probability.

S'