You need to obtain Growing Your Own from OSU Publications, or your county's Extension Service office, or on line.

It's at
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/grow/grow/

Click on Regional Tips for descriptions of the various zones in Oregon.

And you'll find a planting chart (with dates) at
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/grow/grow/planting.html#anchor1227681

Have fun!

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Your Own (Oregon)

Judy- I live N of Portland and night temps here are now 49-53*F. I plant pole beans out May 15 here, you would have to adjust for where you are. Some bush beans I've planted out as early as April 15, heirloom wax beans. Fava beans can be planted out even Feb. 15 but I waited more like March 15. They are flowering now, along with the peas.

I have a light setup made of metal shelves with 3 tiers. I suspend 4' fluorescents over the 2nd and 3rd shelves with small chains and s-hooks, and can grow 4 flats of seeds underneath. I start tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants, and some flowers, Feb. 15, transplant once to 2 1/2" pots, then set them outside under tunnels April 1-15 (30 year average low temps of about 30*F for Portland), when they are around 6 weeks old or whenever they reach the lights at 11" or so. Then hopefully when they have reached the top of the tunnel at 18" I pull off the tunnels about May 15 or so and put them on the squash and cuke transplants that I sow about April 1 so they will have 6 weeks too. This usually works pretty well but I went on a trip this March and my first batch of tomato transplants I left in my DH's care got fungus from a watering can, and set me back so my first tomatoes are not 18" yet but I'm still needing the tunnels for the squash. I think next year I'm getting more tunnels. They make it possible to get earlier crops.

Anyway, if you have lights you could start your squash and cukes early and have them bigger by the time it warms up enough to plant.

Once plants are up good and we have stacks of grass clippings that have cooled off from the initial composting heat, I mulch heavily with the grass over soaker hoses. The grass keeps the ground from drying out as fast. I run the soaker hoses when the ground feels dry, once or twice a week, so I try to move the hose every day to a different soaker hose and work my way around the yard. The mulch keeps weeds from growing too so I don't have to weed once it's down.

So, it seems like I'm a little behind. Especially on the beans. I'm going to plant them asap this weekend along with the cukes. My tomato plants are about 12" now and I'm going to put everything outside. I'll keep the tomatoes under the tunnels for a couple weeks still and put a tarp over the cages at night on the cukes and beans until they get going.

Oh well, it is just my first year...live and learn. Next year I'll start a little earlier. The low temps at night really stumped me! It says you have to have the temps at night at 55 before you put out the cukes and pepper plants. I think that's about the high all summer here! LOL

You need a couple of different resources. You need Growing Veggies West of the Cascaces, which is excellent but also geared to southwest Oregon so you have to adjust accordingly. You also can use Sunset Western Garden Book. Looking at their zone map, I think North Bend is in sunset zone 1A! Snoqualmie is on the border between 4 and 1A and I think North Bend is east of Snoqualmie ... at least when I drive out SR 18 to get to I90 I go through North Bend but I'm already past Snoqualmie, by my memory.

Then you look up Vegetable Gardening in the back of the book where there's a Planting Schedule for Vegetables, one for cool, one for warm. This chart shows you planting all your warm season veggies in JUNE. Not May, unless they're inside.

A third resource that is very helpful is the Territorial Seed Catalog, again from southwest Oregon but geared to cool maritime PNW.

Portland is considerably warmer even than Olympia, let alone North Bend. I'm in sunset zone 4 or 5 here, you're 4 at best and probably 1A, Portland is 6. Now of course Sunset zones are not infallible but there's a huge difference between zones 1 and 6, however you cut it.

For what it's worth, I have never planted my beans before July or late June, although that's admittedly rather late, but I wait for the peas to come out and they don't even start to fruit until June most years. I don't bother with tomatoes, they never get enough heat around here it's too much work for me.

As you say, live and learn... that's how we learn to garden in our particular gardens. You are right to be concerned about the low night temps, and especially about low soil temps. Our soils take a long time to heat up in spring because they're waterlogged coming out of even a normal winter, and wet soils stay cold. Being in a raised bed will help the drainage and therefore the warming up. Plastic mulches will help there too, clear mulch lets in the sun, and people at high elevations use red mulch in summer to help ripen tomatoes. Don't cover with organic mulches until the soil warms or you're blocking out the heat from the sun. I expect with covers the tomatoes and peppers will be fine. Can't say about the cukes or beans. Well beans are pretty adaptable but it would be best if they were sprouted inside before planting out this early. That's my 2 cents worth.

You're watering twice a day?? that seems excessive. What kind of soil do you have in those raised beds, and how much water are you giving the plants at a time?? My veggies are in a slightly mounded up bed of mostly compost with some sandy loam native soil and they get watered MAYBE once a week! Newly planted stuff might need it every 3-4 days, but I can't see anything needing twice daily waterings this time of year. As soon as things warm up they'll need water every 2-4 days but not until then.

The scientific way to determine when to plant things would be to try planting beans a few every week and keeping a record of when they flower, fruit, and yields, and determining that way the best time for your area. I used to wait until June 15 to plant pole beans until I observed volunteer pole bean seeds coming up in mid May, and moved up my planting. My beans planted out May 17 after soaking overnight were just breaking ground yesterday May 26. If sprouted in the house first they might have been a little earlier to come up, but sometimes you break sprouted beans when planting. I included my night time lows to show you that it is warmer here so I was not suggesting you follow my timetable. Tunnels help me immensely with attaining warmer temperatures in the early gardening season. They also dry the soil underneath so I use them to dry soil enough to dig and plant, even when there are continual rains.

Exact timing of sprouting will vary from year-to-year, as does the weather.

Thanks everybody!

I ended up planting the tomato plants over the weekend and put plastic over them that I purchased from Territorial Seed Co. rigged up over PVC hoops completely enclosed. We'll see how that works! I know it may still be too early, but we'll see...

I did plant the pole beans seeds outside, but planted cucs and bush beans inside. I am also keeping my pepper plants inside for another few weeks.

As far as the watering goes, I am using the Square Foot Gardening method and have my raised beds in 4x4's using a mixture of compost, vermiculite and peat moss. It is very loose and does dry out quickly, but I am going to try to cut down the watering to every other day unless it's really hot and sunny, which we all know doesn't happen around here until late July! :)

Does anyone have warm weather plants out yet this spring? I am especially eager to plant this year.

I was all ready to plant my cucumber transplants in the prewarmed raised beds today after work. I also planned on on pulling out all my tomato protective tricks, but we now have a thunderstorm and rain. I quickly tucked everything back in plastic totes & into my car (the moving greenhouse) or stashed them onto my covered front porch. My son came home from nearby & said there was hail, so I am glad I put it all away thinking the clouds looked rather dark for just rain.

I guess it will all have to wait until tomorrow. It sure is going to look like hillbilly city out there in the garden this year with wall of waters, water jugs as heat sinks, plastic surrounding the cages, and row cover over the top.

I just remembered I removed the covers from my zucchini I transplanted last week, so need to run out there to cover them back up. Then I'll come back inside where it's warm & dry to make a good dinner for my family who will hopefully help me get the work done tomorrow.