Start small, start now
Gardening is a skill that takes a few seasons to learn — the time to start is before you need it. A 4 × 8 foot raised bed is a great first garden: easy to manage, warms up early, and produces a surprising amount.
Grow what counts
If the goal is food security, focus on crops that give lots of calories or nutrition per square foot and store well:
| Crop | Why | Stores |
|---|---|---|
| Potatoes | the calorie champion; easy | months in a cool, dark place |
| Winter squash (butternut, hubbard) | calories, vitamins | 3–6 months at room temperature |
| Dry beans | protein; just let pods dry on the plant | years |
| Onions & garlic | flavor, keep well | months |
| Carrots, beets, parsnips | sweet, store in the ground or in sand | months |
| Cabbage, kale, collards | cold-hardy greens | kale survives Spokane frosts into early winter |
| Tomatoes | can them, dry them, sauce them | preserved: a year |
| Corn (flint/dent types) | dried corn for cornmeal | years |
| Zucchini, beans, peas, lettuce | easy and fast, eat fresh | short |
Inland Northwest growing calendar
Spokane is roughly USDA zone 6 (colder in the hills and valleys around it) with a short-ish season: the last spring frost averages around early-to-mid May, and the first fall frost around late September to early October (varies a lot by neighborhood and elevation — valleys get frost earlier).
| When | What |
|---|---|
| March–April | Start tomatoes, peppers and onions indoors. Plant peas, spinach and lettuce outside as soon as the soil can be worked. |
| Late April | Plant potatoes, onion sets, carrots, beets, kale, cabbage starts. |
| Mid–late May | After frost danger: tomatoes, peppers, squash, beans, corn, cucumbers. |
| July | Sow fall carrots, beets, kale and lettuce. |
| September | Harvest and cure squash, potatoes and onions. Plant garlic in October for next summer. |
Check with your local WSU or University of Idaho Extension office and Master Gardeners — they know your exact area.
Raised beds and soil
- Soil is everything. Fill beds with a mix of topsoil and compost. Add compost every year.
- Water deeply, less often — about 1 inch a week, more in July heat. Drip irrigation on a timer saves water and time. Off-grid, a rain barrel with a gravity drip line works well.
- Mulch with straw, leaves or grass clippings to hold moisture and block weeds.
- Rotate crops so the same family isn't in the same spot every year.
Stretch the season
- Row covers (frost cloth) add several degrees of frost protection.
- Cold frames — a box with an old window on top — let you grow greens into November and start early in March.
- A hoop house or greenhouse can add a month or more on each end.
Save your own seeds
Seeds are the ultimate renewable resource. Grow open-pollinated or heirloom varieties (not hybrids, marked "F1") so the seeds grow true.
- Easiest to save: beans, peas, tomatoes, lettuce, peppers.
- Harder (they cross-pollinate): squash, corn, cabbage family.
- Dry seeds well, label with variety and year, and store cool, dry and dark in jars or envelopes. Most stay viable 3–5 years.
Perennials: plant once, harvest for years
Fruit trees (apples, pears, plums and cherries do well here), raspberries, strawberries, blueberries (with acidic soil), asparagus, rhubarb, and herbs. Plant them early — they take years to reach full production.
Sources: WSU Extension — Gardening · USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map · University of Idaho Extension