You will soon be singing the tune "Wisconsin is a great place to be FROM" while you continue to grow many of the plants you named without threat of baking heat, thunder, lightning, hail storms that maim, tornadoes, mosquitoes, deerflies or worse: horseflies.

You will kick yourself you didn't move sooner to our fair state and moderate gardening zone. No more plugging in that engine block heater for you in the dead of winter. Snowblower? Better sell it at the garage sale. What you want to invest in is a good rain coat and waterproof boots. Learn to enjoy moss, there's lots of it. Remember the drab, long, dreary, colorless winters? Forget em: you are entering the land of green, year round green; they don't call it the "Evergreen State" for nothin. Only the Winter sky is drab and colorless, but if you stand around staring at it, something's wrong with you anyway!
You should be able to play in your yard/garden a good ten months a year, and if you're real tough, all twelve.
I'll let somebody else speak directly about Gray's Harbor, but I can't imagine that it would be any near as treacherous as the Midwest.

Sign me,

Former Minnesotan.

Big Steve, the sky is the limit for shrubs and perennials; there are very few exceptions. Cornus kousa is a better choice than c. florida; hostas, viburnum of all types, barberries thrive. I'm growing things from all over the world, including some Z9 plants (winter wet is a bigger obstacle than winter cold). The ground doesn't freeze other than occasionally in E county, no frost heave or winter protection to worry about as you may have done in Wisconsin - hydrangeas, rhododendrons etc.

Diseases aren't particularly a problem unless you are overly fond of roses, and there are disease resistant (powdery mildew, rust) roses to choose from. Your most contant garden battle will be slugs (you will bait or try to deter slugs 11 months out of 12), sometimes deer but the deer have year round natural feed with no regular snow cover and are more opportunistic browsers than outright munch-to-the-ground pests. I watched a fawn poke its nose through my picket fence this afternoon, taste a tricyrtis that apparently wasn't to its liking, then curl up and fall asleep under the rhododendron next door.

Expect mild winters and mild summers; I've turned on air conditioning once this year, just to cool off a too warm house before bedtime.

"...might do best in a very rainy, overcast climate."

You'll be a bit surprised by the Summers there...

All kinds of rarities from New Zealand, Chile and similar maritime climates will also thrive at the coast.

>>>>..."a very rainy, overcast climate."

....where might that be???

Big Steve,

You are going to love gardening here. Most everything grows well.

Some things that don't grow as easily as in central America are hot weather crops and plants that like those blazing dog days and hot humid nights of July--August. Corn, peppers, beans, tomatoes are best bought at the store. Praire perennials may fail to thrive.

You will be more than compensated by the HUGE diversity of Pacific rim plants that love it here. And many of the shrubs and plants you grow will thrive and grow even bigger here than in the midwest.

Here's my trade list to show you some of the things that grow in my yard: http://members.gardenweb.com/members/exch/firevicar

Think of it this way. You will be living at the latitude of Duluth Minnesota for summer sunshine, with the winters of Charlotte, North Carolina.

Right now we're in a hot sunny spell. It gets into the 80's in the day and into the 50's at night.

Slugs are the main pest here, but you can control them.

The soil here is mostly glacial till, full of gravel and sand with an acid PH. Trees are mostly evergreens. In WI, you may have a limestone based loam soil with deciduous forest, or in the north evergreens on sand. So plants that favor sweet soil need some help here to survive.

When you get here, show up for one of the local plant swaps so that you can begin to build your garden. We're all happy to share.

Regards,

FireVicar
formerly of Cedarburg, Wisconsin

Here is a link that might be useful: You are invited to the Eastside Green Elephant Plant Swap

FireVicar, good overall view, but we've had one day this year in the 80's here on the Harbor, and I've yet to find much in the way of sand or gravel in anyone's garden. Organic acidic clay....

Unless there is a definite E wind, we are normally 10 - 15 degrees cooler than inland. Yesterday (Weds) was in the low 70's, quite pleasant...looking W I could see a dense fog line laying on the beach, we have a distinct ocean infuence here.

MorZ8, thanks so much for the interesting and detailed posts replying to my question. I would have emailed you personally, but don't have access to your email address. I did email a couple other respondents with thanks also.
Aren't gardenders great people ??

Big Steve