How to Garden in the Pacific Northwest (Zone 8b)

We love to get out in our front and back yards and Garden in the Pacific Northwest. We're known for our fairly mild but wet climate. Which can be tricky to grow what you want in and also seems to be a trumpet call to slugs. And our decent summers that provide just enough sun for a good crop of tomatoes.

Start with Garden Prep in the Fall

To get your garden off to a good start begin setting things in place in the Fall. The weather is cool and your summer blooms and veggies have died off. It's time to prepare your beds and borders to be their best when Spring comes.

We usually get a good summer which usually truly starts about mid-June (as far as I'm concerned. And when the rain officially stops). And August is usually the hottest month for us (gets into the 100's)  Things calm down mid-September and we're back to rain about the end of October.

Things to do in Fall:

• Plant your garlic. I got a nice sampler from this farm on Etsy (check back closer to the end of summer).
• Plant your flower bulbs. If you want some pretty spring flowers like tulips, daffodils, iris, crocus, hyacinth, and Lily of the Valley now is the time to plant them.
• Mulch: Put your garden to rest with a few inches of mulch. Use something, like wood chips, that will break down and add nutrients to the soil over the winter. If you do decide to use wood chips put them in beds where nothing is growing or put down a layer of leaves first as the wood chips can deplete the nitrogen in shallow rooted plants.
• Compost: Adding good compost to your vegetable beds in fall is a great idea. I know some people wait and add their compost in spring but it really works best when add your compost to your beds in the fall.

Make Gardening Plans In Winter

Things to do in Winter:

We're pulling out our gardening planner. And friends and family are also discussing their gardening plans. In our own home we're talking about our raised beds and the garden stalk (my new love). There are so many options for raised beds. You really can't go wrong. My husband wants to create some flower borders. And I'm rethinking where to plant the strawberries (Which have been traveling with me from apartment to rental home to, finally, their forever home {I hope} for 20 years. In a pot no less! They now get a permanent home! Yay!) I've also been handing out strawberry runners whenever I can. These things are hardy! You can see a picture of them below. This a small patch I started from a runner. These are growing on a very unfriendly stretch on top of some rocks in the back of our yard. Our strawberries are hardy! I can't say that enough. I originally bought them from one of those mailers that you probably throw out but I took a chance on. Keep that in mind.

In other words Winter in the Pacific Northwest is the time to dream and plan.

Get out in the Garden in Spring

Even though it's still a little chilly and wet out it's best to get a good start on the garden by late March. Provided there is no inclement weather like snow. Spring can be dicey and we can get rain and hail well into late April! Then it's just wet and cold to cool after that until June…ish. Not necessarily fun for gardening but we hang in there.

It is in that warm weather time that we lap up all the gardening and sunshine we can!

Right now (March), in the stores, people are gearing up for the gardening season. There are a few annual flowers out, a smattering of small fruit trees, and bulbs. Not to mention all the soils and amendments to help you have the best season yet. This prep time usually lasts until about May when we finally get some warm days. They might come earlier but putting out summer veggies such as tomatoes before Spring Break (April) can mean problems with the crop. I know this from experience.

I talk about strawberries more within this article so be sure to read on for how I deal with them.

Things to do in Spring:

• Use the spring to clean up your garden beds. Banish weeds and put down mulch for those pretty flowers.
• If you have spring bulbs like tulips and Easter lilies clean up the area around them so they will look their best!
• Weed when the ground is wet and it's easy to pull the weeds.
• Spring is the time to prune.
• Hire teens to help you with weeding and pruning. Teach them the ropes. Our neighbor is doing this for our daughter and she is brining her new found skills home. Yeehaw!
• Hopefully you didn't stress too much about your lawn during the fall and winter but now is the time to give it some love. Dethatch and feed.
• Look out for slugs that want to devour your hard work. There are a few ways to deal with these creatures. Some humane. Some not so much. This year we are trying to support our strawberries a little higher so we'll actually get to taste some. We're using these strawberry supports from Gardeners.com and these wire baskets from the Dollar Tree. We got to share one strawberry last year and know how sweet they are so it will be nice to get a few more before the slugs have their feast. By the way, we did try hazelnut shells which did not deter them. If you are willing to risk it you can find some by doing an internet search for local delivery. They are seasonal and it's best to either find them in your local nursery or have a pallet delivery.

Reap the Benefits of your labor in Summer

Things to do in Summer:

• Enjoy the fruits of your labor

Planting Zones for the Pacific Northwest

If you live in the Pacific Northwest your Gardening Zone usually falls within Zones 7 through 9. I'm in Zone 8 in Southwest Washington. Actually Zone 8a according to the USDA Hardiness Zone Finder. That number helps when it comes to picking up tips and which plants to grow. Be sure and visit to know what zone you are in.

The spring weather here in the Pacific Northwest is fairly mild but rather wet. It seems that trees and shrubs are all ready for spring but budding too early may be detrimental to their health. Our last frost date is sometime at the end of April. The charts all say this and it's so true. We can have wild weather until then so be careful what you put out and you might even think of a cold frame to help with sudden hail or heavy winds. But even then you may find yourself waiting until early June to put out things like tomato starts and peppers.

Where I am summer vegetables are usually spent by the end of September. I like to drag that out until October and usually wait until the second to the last week of October to put the garden beds to rest. Our rain is usually full force by then.

In our 8b garden zone we are usually able to grow most vegetables without too much trouble from the weather. The main ones that can give us issues are peppers, and melons. Those super heat loving plants have never done too well for me but I won't give up.

Fruits and Vegetables I've Grown Successfully in the Pacific Northwest

• Blue Berries; Blueberries are at the top of my list. They grow so well and pain free here. I have 3 blueberry plants. All different varieties. We have found that planting them on the northwest side of our back yard serves them best. I have a family member that does the same. I never remember to prune or fertilize my blueberries and yet they still produce for me. The only thing I need to save them from are the birds.
• Strawberries: As I mentioned before I have several strawberry patches in my backyard that come from an original set of runners that I purchased over 25 years ago. My patches are still establishing themselves but do very well against a southern facing back fence. I'm currently toying with covering the plants with these Dollar Tree wire baskets to save them from slugs. (gggrrrr slugs)
• Grapes: I haven't planted any grapes yet and didn't know I could until recently. I have several friends of Slavic background who ALL have grapes in their backyards. They have promised to share slips (I think that's what you call it) with me and show me the way. Update: We planted grapes last spring (2025)and we actually had a very small harvest from them. They are growing well on a pergola a friend built for us.
• Blackberries: Actually a weed in our area and people pick them out in wild areas. I didn't want to grow any but my elderly neighbor insisted and gave me two plants that are thorn free. They are in a pot and I watch them like a hawk. Update: We've planted the thornless in the ground. Be careful these things take off. We get big juicy blackberries in about August doing nothing but trimming (waaaayyyyy back).
• Swiss Chard: I have grown Swiss Chard very well in pots but currently struggle with doing it right in raised beds. It grows well but seems to be getting more attacked from pests. Stay tuned or leave your tips below. Update: I grew Swiss Chard successfully in my raised bed. It did fabulous. I let it go to seed and now pick Swiss Chard starts out of everything in our backyard.
• Onions: I love onions. They are like soap for me. You can never have too many. I order them each year from Dixondale Farms. I follow their planting directions and have a bumper crop every year. Update: I'm also growing multiplier onions now. I told you I love onions. I purchased some Egyptian Walking Onions from Etsy.
• Potatoes: I used to grow potatoes in a fabric pots and it works very well like that. Since moving I haven't picked up any new pots and I'll be trying some in a discarded storage bin this season. Stay tuned. Update: I throw potatoes here and there. Honestly the fabric pots worked best. I also reused them. I did not buy new ones each season.
• Tomatoes: Tomatoes how I love thee why dost thou plague me so? I have a love hate relationship with tomatoes. I'm still learning and will get back to you on if what I learned has helped. They do well in our weather and I think I've learned even more about them. They deserve their own blog post.
• Cucumbers: These grow well but I'm still learning about how to do them best. Update: We had some friends gift us a few plants. These grew crazy. Be sure and use a trellis.
• Zucchini: These grow great in our area. Almost too well. I'm learning a bit about how to make them better so I'll update this when I've tried the new tips. No new tips. Just keep growing when nothing else will.
• Peas: I always plant these too late but they do well here. Update: Plant these in March. I like them to climb my trellis. So delicious. I could stand outside and eat them.
• Beans: Plant beans after peas. I've forgotten why. Something about the soil.
• Kale: Does well in our area.
• Lettuces: Trying something new this year. Stay tuned.
• Garlic: I planted this from grocery store garlic for the first time this past fall. I'll be harvesting in June or July I think. I'm clueless. I bought a hardneck garlic sampler from Etsy and this is my second year planting from that purchase. Yaay!

I'm pretty much guaranteed to have a good crop with these every year. My no fails. Things that I don't do so well. Or at least haven't done well in the past include…

• Peppers
• Carrots
• Broccoli
• Corn
• Cauliflower

About Gardening Vegetables In the Pacific Northwest

Growing vegetables in the Pacific Northwest is just like growing them in other places.

• You have to account for the kind of weather.
• You have to take into account your growing season.
• And then you have to figure out how to fight the pests particular to your area so you can eat some stuff too (or learn to share).

Gardening in Pots

Back in our previous home I used The Garden Patch Grow Boxes for my whole garden. We lived in a townhome and my back porch was 7×5 ft. I used 6 of these post and some fabric grow pots to grow onions, tomatoes, my strawberries, potatoes, lettuce, Swiss chard, and zucchini. Even though the Garden Patch Pots are plastic they served us so well for 8 years and still have plenty of life in them! After moving I gifted to them a friend who is now on her second year using them on her small back porch. If I had to do it again I would use the Greenstalk. Even though I now have a backyard I've moved over to these beauties and even buy them as gifts!

You can see the pots in the background in the little picture above. I have to find another picture of them but from this angle you can see how much stuff I was growing in them. Those are tomatoes in the pots. You only put in two plants per pot as they grow big! The first couple of years I used their organic fertilizer patch that came with them but after a while I just started using Jobe's Organic Fertilizer which I use all over my garden.

I still use various pots for gardening but mostly for flowers and herbs which like to take over. Pots are a great way to contain things like peppermint or lemon balm which really want to take over your garden.

For those who don't have a backyard, space for raised beds, or live in a smaller space innovations like the the Greenstalk make a lot of sense for growing lots of veggies.

I talk more about gardening in containers here.

Growing in Garden Beds

Now that we have a slightly bigger back yard we have gone from gardening in pots to gardening in raised beds. And I love them!

You can buy raised beds or make them yourself. My husband, so far, has built me two kinds of beds. The first ones were based on the Square Foot Gardening book. I loved the garden soil mix that was recommended in the book but I didn't do too well with the square foot part. We used those raised beds for 2 years before I asked for longer regular rectangular beds. Where I once had 3 square foot beds I now have 2 long rectangular beds. I'm on my fifth year with them.

To make our raised beds my husband purchased untreated wood from Lowe's. We didn't want anything leeching into our veggies. What do we know? Nothing. But that's what we did. The first raised beds my husband nailed together. And, well, he's not a carpenter, an electrician actually so wood is not his forte. For the longer beds I purchased corner attachers like these from Gardeners.com to make it easy. I like easy. The original ones I purchased are no longer in stock but they also came from Gardeners.com.

We lined the bottoms with weed fabric and every year add more compost to the top. (where does all the soil go? Erosion 101 but I really think the veggies are eating the soil).

I like the raised beds. They are easy to work with and keep weeds at bay…sort of.

Pests in the Pacific Northwest Garden

Finally Gardening in the Pacific Northwest is not without its pests. Our mild winters mean things can live through them. Grrr. So they just come right back out with a vengeance as soon as things get slightly warm again.

To keep cats and birds out of our beds I purchased a fence with stakes like these. They are not 100% wonderful. The clip on the top is nice but you have to be creative with securing the bottoms. Of course the birds can fly in from the top so I also used bird netting over the top. I've caught them ripping apart my tomato plants for leaves for their nests. Not nice birdies!

Each year my biggest issues are slugs and aphids.

For slugs I've tried various things and the best thing is to keep the food out of their way. As I mentioned earlier we purchased these little raised platforms to keep strawberries out of their path. Our strawberries are good and I would like some too.

Here in the Northwest we also have tried hazelnut shells in the garden. They grow lots of hazelnuts next-door in Oregon so we decked our yard out one year with those…didn't work.

And finally for slugs we like Sluggo. It's iron phosphate that breaks down into fertilizer and is safe around gardens and pets. Win win! And more recently the Oregon Slug Trap. It takes beer but I use fermented apple juice.

And finally another big irritant in my garden is cute, cuddly, big soft, doe eyed stray cats. They love to walk through our backyard stopping long enough to see the beds as a giant litterbox.

We all know I love cats…

so it's obvious that I'm not being overly critical.

Anyway I spend a good amount of time figuring out how to keep them away. The fencing I mentioned above does the trick. We just had to make the garden inaccessible to them. Darling creatures.

And finally the birds. They were eating up my blueberries and strawberries. And also ripping apart my tomato plants for leaves for their nests. Good grief! So we bought [easyazon_link identifier=”B002ITKVE6″ locale=”US” tag=”mommybabytool-20″] this bird netting[/easyazon_link] locally and it works well to keep the birds off the berries. It works really well!

Wet Springtime in the Pacific Northwest is the perfect time to Garden

More Gardening for the Pacific Northwest

• Springtime Gardening and Yard Clean Up in the Pacific Northwest

• Plant Hardiness Zone Lookup

• Companion Planting Infographic and Database

• Garden update for 2016

• Oops Missed 2018

• Garden update for 2019 (I just updated this post. Why recreate the wheel?)

Don't live in the Pacific Northwest? Don't worry….

Gardening Tips for Your Zone

Get a Free online Garden Planning Calendar at Seedtime