PONDERAY — Spring has sprung and gardeners are out in force, surveying their property and planning for the upcoming growing season. The same drill is happening at Ponderay Garden Center, on a much larger scale.

Since opening in 2008, the center has added new outdoor features and indoor retail space each year. For 2012, the pace will ramp up to nearly double the amount of display and selling areas to create close to 5,000-square feet of indoor retail options on the nearly nine-acre property.

“In 2008, we had three buildings open, whereas now it’s six,” said general manager Kevin Mansoor. “This year, we’re adding a café and plant house in the old farmhouse and we’re opening the upstairs of the barn as a ‘local goods only’ retail area.

“For people who love old barns, this thing is magnificent,” he added. “It’s such a dramatic, cool space — kind of like walking into a cathedral.”

At 1,200 square feet, the top floor of the classic red building will sit above a similarly sized ground level that continues to serve as the center’s Gift Barn. Acting as both a welcome center and product sampler, the barn features top sellers and garden-themed items that can be found throughout the site. Think of it as a way to get your bearings before setting out into a browsing excursion that — if history is any indicator — can last a good, long while.

“Our record for how long a customer has spent wandering around the property has been three and a half hours,” Mansoor said. “It’s always a compliment when people come and give you money for a purchase, but I think it’s even more of a compliment when they come back just to stroll around. We love it when people come out here to soak up the atmosphere and get ideas.”

There is plenty to see on those strolls, from the pottery barn — with its assortment of yard art, outdoor furnishings and what Mansoor called “North Idaho’s largest selection of gnomes” — to the nearby antique shed, stocked with garden-related antiques.

Connecting all the buildings is a curving path that travels through a network of outdoor retail zones that are situated like pearls along a string. One of the largest is Ponderay Garden Center’s outdoor edibles zone, containing vines, berries and fruits that thrive in the local climate.

The newest retail area, currently under construction, is the Water Garden zone, which will feature approximately 45 flowing fountains and showcase a number of aquatic plants, including water lilies, water hyacinth and miniature cattails.

Also new for the season is the addition of food and beverages in the farmhouse café and a much-expanded lineup of house plants in the adjacent Plant House.

Making use of all of these areas has turned into a year-round affair for the garden center, with outdoor events that stretch from the beginning of spring well into the farthest reaches of fall.

“Last year, we added the events center with an outdoor stage,” said Mansoor. “This year, our goal is to have 10 concerts over a 10-week season. We’re exploring ideas like having an art show that fades right into the evening concert or hosting a farmer’s market out here.

“We dabbled with the farmer’s market concept last year,” he went on, “but this might be the year where, in the second half of the season, we try to make it an all-day event.”

The events calendar has kicked off with an Easter Egg Hunt for the past two years and will wind up with a Fall Harvest Festival for 2012, complete with hay rides and Halloween activities that will transform Ponderay Garden Center into a system of terrifying trails that lead to haunted houses, sheds and barns.

Taken together, the events are designed to move the normally seasonal business toward a longer, 10-month selling year, according to Mansoor.

“The idea is to extend the seasons,” he said. “It’s a tough market for a garden center in North Idaho, because you only have an eight-week retail season. If you lose a weekend in May because you’ve messed up and aren’t prepared, you can’t recover those sales.

“And we know we can’t depend on the weather to be merciful,” he added. “So you have to be perfect.”

Weather notwithstanding, Ponderay Garden Center has made a name for itself as a place where you can visit multiple times during the gardening season and continue to find surprises around every corner.

“It’s always an evolution out here,” said the general manager. “We’re constantly adding new merchandise and changing the layout of things. You’re almost guaranteed that you can walk into a building and come back two weeks later to find it looking completely different.”

Ponderay Garden Center, located just north of Ponderay on U.S. Highway. 95, will host a chocolate and wine-tasting event on Wednesday, April 25, from 5-8 p.m., featuring live music and the official unveiling of the new water garden during the event.

Information: www.ponderaygarden.com