just assuming that by "gardening" you mean, annual edibles. like tomatoes, carrots etc.

if you don't mind getting a little cold and wet, you can certainly grow a pretty decent variety of edibles here year round. this is the coldest weather in 4 years, but kale, root veggies etc will survive, under some light frost cover, there are even more.

because things can go year round here, timing gets pretty tricky. when to set out warm weather crops, then getting your autumn crops in to get enough growth to last all winter... another art form.

tons of books on this (i generally cull together a bunch of internet research instead).

Zone numbers can be msleading when it comes to summer gardening. It is especially so about Seattle area which is desgnated as zone 8. Zone numbers are applicable to shrubs, perennials and cold hardiness issues.

GROWING SEASON LENGTH: is defined from the last frost in spring till first frost in the fall. Here it is about 7 months. BUT ( a big one) most of those 7 months are rainy and cold. In practice we have less than 5 months of growing season . That is, I am talking about spring and SUMMER gardening.
Another thing is that even during those 5 months temperature rarely go beyond 85F and night temperature rarely get into 60s. Official summer here begins as of early July, and ends by early September. So there is only 2.5 months of COOL summer.

This is a good place to grow flowers, especially bulbs but not so much for heat loving garden veggies like peppers, tomatoes, eggplants.. So you have to be selective in planting varieties that have shorter DTM.

People did well with tomato plants this past summer. Awhile back long term climate projections were calling for colder, darker springs and hotter summers. We've been having a bit of this pattern (if it comes to pass) in recent years, as though it was happening already, with dull springs that never end followed by some hotness during the summer. But as alluded to above the showers not abating completely until July is normal, due to it taking until then for the seasonal warming to prevail.

Nevertheless the metropolitan lowland areas here do not get as much rain as most of eastern North America, with much of what bothers people being cool and damp conditions rather than actual pounding downpours. Take right now for instance, with an Arctic system having been in place for awhile I haven't seen any serious rain for quite some time - and Pacific weather isn't expected to return until next week.

This post was edited by bboy on Sat, Dec 7, 13 at 20:23

Thank you all, I'm starting to piece together a picture of the advantages and challenges I'll be experiencing my first season there. You don't know how wonderful it sounds to be able to grow winter crops, and cool summers will be a relief too. But I do want tomatoes and peppers in addition to many other fruits and veggies, so I'll be checking into methods to make that most successful.

Thank you again!

For warm season vegetables you want adapted cultivars plus row covers or plastic tunnels and a sheltered, southerly aspect. And raised beds, for all kitchen crops not just the hot climate ones. Sheltered a food garden with hedges or walls also makes it a more pleasant working environment.

I've been thinking plastic covers, and will try straw bale gardening. Since they warm up so well, it seems they might be the perfect solution. Then, it's just a matter of getting recommendations for varieties. I hope.

A friend even uses circulated air to grow melons in a tunnel in Shoreline, WA north of Seattle. The air warmed by the cover is blown down into the bed via a tube, to warm the soil.

bboy,
I'm just curious.Is your friend's name Boyd?A couple years ago,I bought a Mist-o-matic from him and noticed there were some good sized melons in a tunnel.I didn't examine it too closely,but it was in Shoreline. Brady

"noticed there were some good sized melons in a tunnel"

I did too, on they way home from work. Sorry. Had to.

Was she driving a convertible?

Then I have to ask if that would be the Oregon City tunnel since it is the closest to Tualatin.