What will be the biggest shock?

I vote for the traffic!! Spend a lot of time in SoCal myself and ours is worse by far. At least they have a pretty extensive system of freeways and one can usually always get from point A to point B by more than one route. And rush hour there is not 24/7. LOL!

I'm not sure I know how to compare the gardening - different climate, different growing season(s), different plants - I like 'em both, but I prefer the more distinct seasons of the PNW.

I just moved to the Portland area from SoCal (Orange County) a couple of weeks ago. I'm trying to get acquainted with the different vegetation here. And when to plant. I don't know yet what the length of the growing season is here.

You might look at the thread on this forum about favorite gardening books. I'm going to do some reading based on the suggestions.

Arghhhh! California transplant, a sore spot with me just now.

dctrlbr, I'm kidding. There is a Calif gardener nearby I haven't been able to convince she is no longer gardening on sand and her watering practices are damaging long established plants, much to my dismay. (little stingy amounts of irrigation after dark, every night, that only dampens the mulch)

So please, when you've begun to garden and reach the point where you may be supplemental watering - water as you think you need, then take a shovel and check the depth to which water has penetrated, adjust amount/timing from there. You may very well have a clay based soil that takes more water to reach root zones but stays moist much longer.

My second suggestion since it will be in your neighborhood is run straight to Molbaks and go shopping :)

And your biggest shock may be how much damage a slug can do...

Thank you all for your postings--very helpful and different. I have been studying Ann Lovejoy religiously so have some idea of what I will be facing. Definitely different from struggling to keep things alive in the San Fernando Valley's 100 plus degree days all summer. Morz8--you are right, I will probably tend to overwater everything.

Any more suggestions would be welcome. And, is traffic really worse than the 405 and the 101?????

Up here the problem is bottlenecks, with everyone during peak times trying to take the same few main routes. Your old friend I-405 is waiting for you near Woodinville.

Woodinville is northeast of Seattle and slightly colder. If you are going to be on an open, sunny hillside you will have a more comfortable situation than down in a hollow where cold air collects or on a shaded slope. The drainage and settling of cold, stale air is a factor even as far down as San Diego, where coastal properties near the mouths of canyons are flooded by air draining from the interior.

Here is a link that might be useful: Climate Zone Map: Washington, Oregon, British Columbia

Never lived is So Cal but moved to Woodinville from NJ 2 years ago. I find the "traffic" here very reasonable! 24/7? I have not experienced that. I travel 405 every weekday and only occasionally have an issue - and then it is only in a short 2 hour rush hour period. I also go into Seatle on the w/e often and also have only minor problems. Unlike NJ where it took at a minimum 45 minutes to go 12 miles no matter what time day or night!! We were back in NY/Nj in June and got stuck in about a 2 hour backup at 9:30pm, with no real cause.

On gardening I also have no comparison to So Cal but it is great compared ot NY/NJ/Maine where I have gardened before! This winter has already been more of a killer then the past 3 but based on zone it is normal. I am not a good waterer and have so far gotten away with heavy mulching and infrequently heavy watering in the summer.

My emails in my profile; email me if you'd like any real local help!

Cathie

I moved here from Phoenix twenty years ago and have never gotten over the grey skies and drizzle. I miss the sun. Sometimes desperately.

"By the time I get to Phoenix..."

I also wondered if the traffic was really worse here than in LA. Last time I was in LA, some years ago the drill was zip along arterials to a freeway, where you would then sit in awful smog, creeping along for miles. And this was in November, not July*. Don't remember a time of day when the congestion would let up, but maybe it does. Here you can still get around fine during less busy times.

*Early settlers noted that the basin had a haze over it from the smoke of Indian camps or villages.

Well, since this thread has moved to the traffic problem, I must say as a resident of LA that there is NEVER a time that the freeways are moving. And it never has to do with an accident, etc. just too many people! We usually plan to leave 2 hours ahead for a 1/2 hour commute.

So to move back to the NW, does anyone know what will really happen to the Heronswood grounds? Got the new catalogue, but don't see Hinkley's presence anywhere.

Dan has nothing more to do with the entity now known as 'Heronswood' (or Burpeewood, more correctly).

But the Pacific Northwest Horticultural Conservancy, a not-for-profit organization formed more or less expressly for the purpose of saving the former Heronswood garden and property, is actively working to obtain the property and manage it in trust as an educational facility and botanical garden.

Here is a link that might be useful: PNHC

I grew up in Texas but lived 20 yrs. in San Diego. The sunshine was nice until we had a Santa Ana (winds from the desert instead of the ocean) and it would go up to 100+ degrees and usually be accompanied by fires that caused the air to be full of smoke. Also we lived on a canyon and I had hay fever problems from some plant there but none up here.

I also couldn't work outside in my garden in the middle of the day there because of the heat but could garden year-round with cool season veggies in winter. Here only some vegetables will make it through the winter, like kale, collards, and turnip greens, but I can garden outside all summer since I have cooler temps and a lot of cedar trees and therefore a lot of shade. I take a gardening break in winter and puruse catalogs, knit, enjoy the holidays, etc.

Water left running at the top of a bed in SD would run down the whole bed and then out to the street, but a hose left running here sinks straight down into the ground and doesn't run anywhere, probably because it found some mole or vole hole and headed off to China. I tend to buy plants that don't need a lot of water so they will make it through our rainless dry season summer without much watering. I kind of wish I had bought a house on a rock outcrop again so no burrowing critters could live there. Also I have a lot of pesky deer munching on my plants.

I plant and transplant mostly in spring and fall. I use tunnels to start tomatoes early because we don't get enough summer heat and have cool nights so it takes longer for them to ripen. I've given up growing vegetables that need a lot of heat like melons.

This is perennial paradise, enough chilling and not too cold. Our winters are very mild for how far north we are, comparable to a lot of the south but without the bugs and fungal diseases. Happy gardening!

I moved to Tacoma from the San Francisco area over 15 years ago, and I'm still amazed at the vigor of the weeds here. I have learned (after spending years never having time to do any gardening except pull weeds) that it is absolutely necessary to mulch, mulch, mulch. The weeds start growing in February, and by June the garden is taken over unless you have a TEAM to get out and weed EVERY day.

I learned to drive in LA. Don't worry about the amount of traffic. DO worry about the drivers! I stay off the freeways as much as possible.

Daphne in Tacoma