backyard gardening in the Seattle area (Snohomish, Pacific: mortgage, houses, live)

[O'Dell]

Gardeners help me please! This is a post about backyard gardening in the Pacific Northwest. I'm interested in any and all Seattle gardening forums, destinations, brick & mortar stores or common-sense thoughts from pros. What's the growing season? Are your vegetables frustrated by the lack of sun? Are small greenhouses useful in the winter?

Thank you very much.

[Ira500]

I'm an avid gardener. Some things do extremely well here because it doesn't get that cold for extended periods of time. Things flower here a whole month or so earlier than they do in the northeast.
For those plants that do require heat and sun, it takes more effort. I grow lots of veggies. The brassicas ( broccoli, greens, kale, etc. ) and spinach thrive here and can produce almost year round. Garlic and onions do extremely well here. But good luck growing things like watermelons, things that require 100 days to mature. I grow melons and tomatoes and peppers and eggplant every year, but not every variety will do well. It's best to select an earlier maturing variety, and to get it started in a greenhouse or inside the house, and/or lay down plastic and cut slits and plant in there so the solil gets and stays warm. The growing season for summer crops like melons is fairly short and unpredictable, as it can get rainy as early as late September. And yet July and August are extremely dry here, less rain than Phoenix, and you're in trouble if you forget to water. So drip irrigation is very useful. But my magnolia tree is blossoming right now and the forsythias have been in bloom for weeks.
It's actually a gardener's paradise here, especially if you don't insist on growing things more suited for hot, long summers

[CityGirl72]

I had an especially hard time gardening in the PNW. I advise you to get a book on your zone and really look at what to plant and how first. I didn't and was very annoyed, as I was used to the ease of gardening in Calif.

Plus watch Cisco on the news during the weekends. He has a great show and let's you know where some of the great nursery's are in the area, plus what plants work well in PNW weather. He is something I miss after I moved.

But I would say look into a greenhouse as it was just too cold for me to garden too. They have a nice small one at Costco right now for $600 and it's about perfect for backyard gardening.

[azoria]

Originally Posted by O'Dell

common-sense thoughts from pros.

Be very careful about what you plant. You may never be able to get rid of it once installed in the ground.

[burlshoe114]

Google "Snohomish County Master Gardeners." These are folks who do a lot of workshops and education through WSU, and they know a lot about what will and won't grow here.
Seattle is a funny area when it comes to gardens. Sun plays a big role, as does location. I can't get squash of any kind to grow for me without a battle for every zuchinni. My neighbor across the street, however, can get 2 foot zukes by just putting seeds in the ground!
Things that have done well for us and were easy to grow:
Spinach, chard, peas, beans, Italian prunes, Beauty plums, raspberries, strawberries, leaf lettuce, Liberty apples, most pears, rhubarb, blackberries, sometimes cherries will make it.
Things I wish we never tried to grow:
Peaches (constant battle with leaf curl and ants), any other kind of apple than "Liberty" (all our other apples are small and get infested with everything possible), apricots (the minute they flower it freezes!), grapes (unless you just like the vines), roses.

We have a small greenhouse on our patio, and we use it year-round. Just be careful of snow weight, wind, and falling branches. If it snows, get out there with your broom and get it off of the roof quickly.

[Ira500]

I too never get any fruit from the apricot tree. The first year we got a few, but nothing after that. It does have pretty flowers. I'm the one arguing to keep it. My wife would just as soon chop it down and plant something that actually produces fruit.
I do grow grapes successfully. I'm not particularly fond of the grapes the vines produce...They're small, yellow/green seedless grapes that are kind of cloyingly sweet.
One thing I've planted the last couple of years was the bush Delicata squash, and it is amazingly productive and produces a pretty and delicious winter squash. And it seems to thrive on neglect. After you slice it in half and take out the seeds, it's just awesome cut into french fry size pieces, drizzled with olive oil, salt and garlic, and baked. You eat the peel n'all.

[O'Dell]

Originally Posted by Ira500

It's actually a gardener's paradise here, especially if you don't insist on growing things more suited for hot, long summers

If it's a good environment for various vegetables -- peas, beans, tomatoes, broccoli, lettuce and carrots -- then this is good news. Although it sounds like a bit of an experiment when it comes to which tomatoes will thrive and which will not. Have any of you planted heirloom varieties to see if they produce better tomatoes?

Burlshoe, thanks for the tip on the master gardeners; it does seem there's a wealth of information in that group.

cheers

[Ira500]

If it's a good environment for various vegetables -- peas, beans, tomatoes, broccoli, lettuce and carrots -- then this is good news. Although it sounds like a bit of an experiment when it comes to which tomatoes will thrive and which will not. Have any of you planted heirloom varieties to see if they produce better tomatoes?

As a matter of fact I have great success with a heirloom variety called Halladay Mortgage Lifter, which is an early maturing variety of mortgage lifter. They're awesome. Juicy, sweet, large, and ugly.
I also grow Sun Sugar, a hybrid which is a sweet as candy cherry tomato, and never fails me. Lots of the nurseries around here sell Sun Gold cherry tomatoes, which are also delicious, but I prefer Sun Sugar. I start tomatoes from seed, and Sun Sugar has better crack resistance.