The Coeur d’Alene Garden Club, a 501c3 nonprofit, brings people together through a shared love of plants and community. From meetings and presentations to field trips and their much-loved annual Garden Tour, the club is all about learning, growing, and making our town a more beautiful place—one garden at a time.
On Sunday, June 29, 2025, the annual Garden Tour returns. “The club, the sponsors, tour volunteers and garden owners showcasing their gardens have worked hard to make this event a success,” says Judy Feldner, 2025 Tour Chair for the Coeur d’Alene Garden Club.
This year’s theme, Journey to the Gardens, not only guides guests through neighborhoods across Kootenai County but also brings attention to the pollinators that help create and sustain our vibrant garden spaces. “Not only are you buzzing from Coeur d’Alene to Hayden, to Dalton Gardens, Rathdrum and Athol, this year we want to bring attention to the pollinators that help create our beautiful gardens,” Judy notes. “This allows us to cover various micro-climate which enables us to showcase a diversity of gardens.”
Each year, a garden selection committee is formed to identify standout properties that meet the club’s criteria. Leads come through word-of-mouth or gardeners reaching out directly via the club’s website. The goal is to include a variety of spaces that spark ideas for gardeners at all levels. Judy explains that the committee looks at a range of factors when choosing featured gardens: mature plantings, diversity and texture, unique features such as artwork or water elements, how guests will move through the garden, and practical considerations like parking and traffic flow.
“For this year’s chosen gardens, the club aimed to address gardens for the beginner as well as the experienced gardener,” Judy shares. “We have a couple of small gardens which have creative ways to enhance your backyard with little maintenance. We have a garden that provides ideas on how to convert your unused vegetable garden to a beautiful array of perennials and annuals. We have three gorgeous large gardens in Rathdrum and Athol for the experienced gardener: One highlights all the native plants in our area, one is nestled in a 60-acre forest, and one has an abundance of perennials and trees that have been nurtured over the years.”
To enhance the tour experience, there will be live music and artisans at each garden. “This year, because of the size of some of the gardens, we have a unique opportunity to include more vendors (29!) than we have ever had before,” Judy explains. “We will have food and beverage vendors, specialty vendors and creative artisans scattered around the gardens.”
The Garden Club is also excited to welcome Wing Rising, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness about the declining population of Monarch Butterflies on the West Coast. “They will be promoting an adoption program that tracks the migration of butterflies,” Judy adds.
Tickets to the 2025 Garden Tour can be purchased online at CdAGardenClub.com or in person at New Leaf Nursery, Westwood Nursery, Vanhoff’s Garden Center and Petal Pusher. Each ticket includes a map noting vendor locations throughout the tour. Tickets are selling quickly, so don’t wait! All proceeds from the Garden Tour are donated to local charities, schools and community gardens with horticultural programs or greenhouse initiatives that support our community.
“I hope our guests have an incredible journey viewing all the amazing gardens,” Judy smiles.
