And...it's up!

Excellent! Good work, Deb! (and, of course, Dave! )

Please also notice that Dave kindly 'stickied' our introduction thread so it will always be at the top now. We can direct newcomers there so they get a feel for who we are, and have a chance to introduce themselves. Thanks for thinking of this long ago @springcolor!

Oh, that's cool! He must have done that after I looked at the forum home page. Heh, or else I just didn't notice it.

That looks so good! Thanks again for the great work. Now you lurkers out there join in in the chat!

I'm a little late to be getting into this conversation but here is my 2 cents. PNW refers to the Pacific, hence Idaho is land locked and I would reject their inclusion. When I lived in Idaho we referred to our area as The Great North Western Inland Empire which included WA and OR from the Cascades East to the Rockies. There was a (small) movement at one time, mostly talk, to redraw state boundaries to include Eastern WA, Northern ID, and possibly Western MT into a new state. I don't know if there was any talk of Eastern OR and Southern ID as another state. I have nothing against Idaho, I loved it there but the growing seasons, native plant variety, precipitation and elevations are quite different. When I moved to the WA coast 20 some years ago, I was tired of snow from Oct to June. We would accumulate around 7' every winter, have even seen it snow on the 4th of July one year and have seen temperatures get down to -36F. I figured in Western Washington I didn't have to shovel rain or at least it would be a lot easier.

Tom, that was funny about not shoveling rain!

We moved to Idaho last year because we were tired of the snow in Utah! Didn't get much were I live (about 3 feet over winter), and what we did get melted pretty quick. Our elevation is only 1,750, so that has something to do with it. We had some brutal cold, but so did most of the rest of the county. Ours didn't last as long though.

Personally, I don't feel like I'm in the PNW, but it is as close to a home area that I can find on here, so I'm happy to belong to the area, which includes some awesome people! I'm still not sure that it is the appropriate regional location, but since there are so few members in this neck of the woods, it is fine with me if my area is included in the PNW region. I've been stuck worse places before! We were talking earlier about this area being called the Inland Northwest, but again, with so few members here, it makes no sense to create a new area just for a few of us who may never post anything about our region.

Haven't heard even one thing mentioned since moving here about creating a new state our of the areas that you mentioned. If the officials want to create a new state, I'm fine with it, as long as I don't have to move again!

Maybe we change our designation to 'all those guys over in the NW corner of North America' ?? Hmm, or not. I suppose we could drop the word Pacific, and just call our forum Northwest Gardening, but I think including Pacific rather defines us as being up here in the corner. How about the Wild West forum? Just poking fun, I think we are fine as is, PNW is readily recognizable. And, I'm happy to include anyone who wants to join in.

On a regional note, I always found it curious to have folks in the Methow Valley refer to everyone on the west side of the mountains as 'coasties' -- to me, the coast is the actual Pacific ocean shoreline, which is about 4 hours away from me, so I don't think of myself as a coastie at all. If anything, I would consider myself a 'sounder' as I live within 15 minutes of Puget Sound. All relative I guess.

Tom, I do vaguely recall talk about creating new states, although I thought it was splitting both Washington and Oregon by the Cascades and renaming them to I forget what. It kind of made sense to me geographically and politically, although I wonder if the east side could generate the tax base to support itself.

Hi Natalie, I see your point about the sparse participation from those in the "Inland Northwest" and not warranting a new group/region. I sincerely enjoy posts and threads from any and all regardless of the location and everyone needs a home of at least one area to stay in touch with.

The state thing was primarily a political-financial thing where locals saw it as their taxes were being used in Southern ID instead of improvements in North ID and I think Spokane kind of felt the same way about Seattle. It never gained any ground.

Tom, the population up here is sparse, which would be a good reason as to why the participation here is sparse! Where did you live when you were in Idaho? I've been to Nooksack before, but it has been many years. My husband is from Bellingham, but didn't live in town. He may have been closer to Ferndale.

I met my husband in Bellingham while attending college, and my oldest son lives there, so we get up that way often. We used to have friends in Deming, and I was always surprised at how much they were able to grow there - ripe watermelons! I think their soil was old river bed, and perhaps the sand content kept it warmer than usual.

@Natali
The home for my Idaho Adventures were south of Sandpoint between Coeur d Alene. Elev 2800'. Traveled all over the state from Idaho Falls to Boise to McCall to Rathdrum to Bonners Ferry and above. Beautiful country, breath taking scenery and a sportsman's paradise.

@Deb
In the mid-west the soil can be the same for hundreds of miles but around here it can be 10 different types in 10 miles. Same with micro-climates. Lived outside of Ferndale for about 15 years and that soil would grow anything. Was a rich sandy loam and I miss that. I called the county extension office and they told me of a mineral in our soil in Nooksack that plants didn't grow well in but I've forgotten what it was. I've been amending this soil in my beds with sand, compost (or manure), rock dust and peat then adding alfalfa and blood meal. Seems to be doing pretty good.
Note to self: call extension office Monday!

Tom, I'll be finding out how pretty the Coeur d'Alene area is on Monday. Haven't been there yet, so we're taking the dogs camping for a few days. I've heard that it is beautiful up there. I really love the area around McCall, but it's way too cold there for me. It's also way too crowded!

Old thread, I know, but I'm not in this forum very often, mostly because it seems like my area has so little in common with that of most of the other active participants. Dry desert climate here, with harsh sun, strong winds, low humidity, and no snow or rain to speak of. Soil is on the alkali side, with a bit of excess magnesium, phosphorus, and iron. Very long growing season.

Which isn't to say that you aren't a great bunch of people. And I can relate to much of the discussion, having lived many years both in Western Washington and in Northern California. It just doesn't feel like this forum can fill the same need for me as it does for others here. There is no other regional classification I could possibly fit into, though.

Paul, I'll wave your direction when I drive past Richland on my way to Bend tomorrow. I feel the same way about my area, though it is much wetter than your area. It just doesn't seem like I fit, but it's better than nothing!

And I'm rather hoping we'll entice more dry-siders to participate, perhaps starting a thread or two specific to the east side of the hills. My sister (in Twisp) and I are about 3 zones apart, but we still manage to exchange quite a few starts with one another and then find it interesting to see how the exact same plant will behave differently for each of us.

I wish there were enough members in this neck of the woods to start a new area, but there are so few of us that it doesn't make sense to do that.

My Dad lives about 15 miles outside of Bend, OR, and he's still getting temps in the upper 20s at night! I do like cool nights, but not that kind of cool in July! The zones are so varied in the PNW!