In Oregon spring comes early then shuts down and then finally summer will come late as well like end of June.
If you are lucky you can get the garden going before the 2nd batch of rain soaks the ground making gardening/tilling impossible.
If you miss it, then the garden gets a very late start, but the good news is summer usually runs long into September and October.
This year I'm going to start early inside, I still want a green house someday. Maybe this year I can budget some $$ for it.
I also discovered Hops this past year, grew several varieties and they are very easy to grow here. They were growing several inches per day last year and our last batch of beer was very good using them.
This year my plans are some giant pumpkins, any advice?
I will add you to the ping list. I don’t have much luck with squash, pumpkins, or watermelons.
I hope that one of our other gardeners will be able to help you out.
Good to see another north west gardener join the forum. I’ve been growing veggies on the shores of Humboldt Bay for almost 60 years and tried Dill’s Atlantic Giant “Pumpkins” but we don’t get enough heat units for them. I think the biggest one was around 80 pounds. Can’t grow tomatoes here either without being a masochist of some sort.
I know all about FALSE SPRING and ours came in January this year. It is usually February...
No personal experience - never had much luck with pumpkins, but Burpee has a pretty good article on growing giant pumpkins:
http://www.burpee.com/vegetables/pumpkins/how-to-grow-huge-pumpkins-article10276.html
Here’s a book [HOW-TO-GROW WORLD CLASS GIANT PUMPKINS (3RD EDITION)] I saw on one of my favorite spots (Grit Magazine):
http://www.grit.com/shopping/detail.aspx?itemnumber=4141