Seasonal Planting: What to Plant Each Month in Santa Cruz County

Seasonal Planting

Jun 13

Seasonal Planting answers one question in twelve different ways: what should go in the ground right now? Every guide in this category is written for Santa Cruz County and the Central Coast, where the planting calendar looks nothing like the one printed on the back of a seed packet.

The thing to understand about our climate is that the growing year does not stop. Along the coast, hard freezes are rare, so there is no dormant window where nothing can be planted. Instead of one season, we have two overlapping ones running all year. Cool-season crops, the brassicas, greens, peas, and roots, are happiest from fall through spring and can hold in the ground through winter. Warm-season crops, tomatoes, peppers, squash, beans, and melons, need real heat, which along the coast does not arrive until well into summer and in a fog-belt yard may barely arrive at all. Our warmest, sunniest months are often August, September, and early October, not June, and that alone rewrites the calendar most gardeners were taught.

That gives us a genuine advantage. Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, and Brussels sprouts are miserable in hot climates and superb in ours, because they size up slowly in cool, foggy weather and hold without bolting. See When to Plant Brassicas in Santa Cruz County for the timing, then the crop guides for the details. It also means fall is the most productive planting window of our year, not the end of anything. Fall Vegetable Planting Guide for Santa Cruz County is the single most useful article in this category for most local gardeners.

The complication is that timing shifts hard across a few miles. Corralitos, Boulder Creek, and the San Lorenzo Valley see frost in most winters and hotter summer afternoons, so a warm-season crop can go in weeks earlier there than in Westside Santa Cruz, and a tender crop needs protection there that the coast does not. The UC Cooperative Extension office serving Santa Cruz County (https://ucanr.edu/sites/uccesc/) and the UC Master Gardeners of Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz Counties (https://ucanr.edu/site/uc-master-gardeners-monterey-santa-cruz-counties) both plan around this variation, and so should you. Treat every month guide here as a starting point and adjust for your own yard.

How to use this page. If you want to know what to sow this week, go straight to the month guide, for example What to Plant in Santa Cruz and the Bay Area in July. If you want a broader to-do list, including pruning, feeding, watering, and pest watch, use the matching checklist, such as Your July Garden Checklist for Santa Cruz County. The two are meant to be read together: one tells you what to plant, the other tells you what else the garden needs that month.

Two seasonal jobs are easy to miss and worth putting on the calendar now. Bare-root fruit trees go in during the winter dormant window, which is a short and specific opportunity, covered in When Should I Plant Bare-Root Fruit Trees in Santa Cruz?. And any bed you are not using should be growing a cover crop rather than sitting bare through the rainy season, which is what Winter Cover Crops in California is for. Bare soil in a Santa Cruz winter loses nutrients and structure to the rain. Sown ground does not.

What to Plant This Month

Twelve month-by-month sowing guides for Santa Cruz and the Bay Area, plus what changes inland versus on the coast.

Monthly Garden Checklists

The rest of the month's work: pruning, feeding, watering, mulching, and what to watch for.

Cool-Season Crops and Brassicas

The crops our fog and cool summers were made for, and the fall window when they go in.

Cover Crops and Off-Season Soil Building

What to sow when a bed is resting, so the winter rains build your soil instead of stripping it.

The Summer Garden and the Harvest

Getting heat-lovers through a coastal summer, and dealing with the glut when it finally arrives.

Cut Flowers by Season

Warm-season and cool-season flowers that keep a cutting garden going nearly year-round here.

Fruit Trees: Planting and Cold Protection

Bare-root planting windows, plus protecting avocado and citrus through an inland cold snap.

Frequently Asked Questions

What can I plant right now in Santa Cruz County?

There is something to plant in every month of the year here. Roughly, sow cool-season crops such as lettuce, kale, broccoli, peas, and root vegetables from late summer through early spring, and set out warm-season crops such as tomatoes, peppers, squash, and beans once soil and nights have warmed, generally late spring into summer. Check the current month guide, then adjust for your own microclimate.

When is the last frost in Santa Cruz County?

It depends entirely on where you are. Immediate coastal areas often go a whole winter without a hard freeze, while inland spots such as Boulder Creek, Corralitos, and the San Lorenzo Valley get frost most winters, sometimes into early spring. Rather than trusting a single county-wide date, track frost in your own yard for a season. Cold air pools in low spots, so two neighbors can have different last-frost dates.

Is fall really a good time to plant here?

It is the best time for most crops. Fall soil is still warm, which gets seeds up quickly, and the cool, damp months that follow are ideal for brassicas, greens, peas, garlic, and roots. A fall-planted garden also needs far less irrigation than a spring one, because the rains do the watering. Along the coast, a fall planting can produce right through winter.

Why do my tomatoes ripen so late in the season?

Because our heat arrives late. Coastal Santa Cruz summers are moderated by fog, and the warmest, clearest weather often lands in August, September, and early October. Tomatoes need accumulated warmth, so a plant set out in May may not deliver seriously until late summer. Choose short-season varieties, plant in the warmest, most sheltered spot you have, and expect the harvest to run into fall.

What should I do with an empty bed over winter?

Do not leave it bare. Winter rain on bare soil compacts the surface, leaches nutrients, and encourages erosion. Sow a cover crop such as fava beans, bell beans, vetch, or a legume and grain mix in fall, then cut it down and turn or mulch it in before it sets seed in spring. It costs a few dollars and returns organic matter and nitrogen to the bed.

Tools that go with these guides

Adrienne Gaughan