Learn
CATEGORIES
- Avocados
- Beginner Gardening
- Brassicas
- California Gardening
- Cold Protection
- Companion Planting
- Container Gardening
- Cool-Season Crops
- Cover Crops
- Edible Gardening
- Fire-Wise Gardening
- Food Safety
- Fruit Trees
- Garden Calendar
- Garden Myth Buster
- Garden Planning
- Garden Question of the Week
- Garden Techniques
- Gardening with Kids
- Getting Started
- Greens
- Grow Guides
- Growing Guides
- Herbs
- How-To Guides
- Indoor Gardening
- Kids Gardening
- Local Resources
- Microclimates
- Microgreens and Indoor Growing
- Monthly Garden Checklist
- Native Plants
- Nutrition
- Organic Gardening
- Pest Management
- Planning & Planting
- Plant Diseases
- Plant Guides
- Plant Problems
- Planting Calendar
- Santa Cruz Gardening
- Seasonal Gardening
- Seasonal Planting
- Soil Health
- Succulents
- Summer Gardening
- The Garden Coop
- This vs. That
- Vegetables
- Water-Wise Gardening
Growing Satsuma Mandarins in the Santa Cruz Coastal Fog Belt
If you garden in the foggy coastal strip of Santa Cruz County and you have always assumed citrus is not for you, the satsuma mandarin is the tree that proves you wrong. It is the most cold-hardy and most coast-friendly citrus there is, and it ripens in the cool of fall rather tha
Growing Ranunculus in the Santa Cruz Coastal Fog Belt
If you garden in the cool, gray-morning strip right along the coast, from the West Side of Santa Cruz out toward Davenport and along the marine-influenced flats, this is your good news page. The fog belt is genuine flower-farm country, and ranunculus is one of the crops it grows
Growing Roma Tomatoes in the Santa Cruz Coastal Fog Belt
If you garden in the fog belt, from Davenport down through the Santa Cruz, Capitola, and Aptos coast, the honest truth is that Romas are a stretch here. You can grow them, but you have to stack the deck.
Growing Zucchini in the Santa Cruz Coastal Fog Belt
If you garden along the immediate coast around Santa Cruz, Capitola, the Aptos flats, or out toward Davenport, zucchini is absolutely workable here. It just grows on the fog belt's slower clock, and powdery mildew is the foe to plan around.
Growing Potatoes in the Santa Cruz Coastal Fog Belt
If you garden in the immediate coastal band, the foggy strip through Santa Cruz, Capitola, the Aptos coast, and out toward Davenport, potatoes are a satisfying and forgiving crop for you. They want the cool spring weather the marine layer hands you, and they reward a little hilli
Growing Meyer Lemons in the Santa Cruz Coastal Fog Belt
Along the Santa Cruz, Capitola, and Aptos coast, a Meyer lemon will live happily, but cool foggy summers and short sun slow ripening and thin the skin. It works here. It just asks for patience and a sunny spot.
Growing Sungold Cherry Tomatoes in the Coastal Fog Belt
If you garden along the immediate coast around Santa Cruz, Capitola, the Aptos shoreline, or out toward Davenport, this is the page that finally has good tomato news for you. Unlike a paste tomato, Sungold actually thrives in the fog.
Growing Low-Chill Peaches and Nectarines in the Santa Cruz Coastal Fog Belt
Growing a peach in the coastal fog belt of Santa Cruz County is the hardest version of this crop in the county, and it pays to be honest about why before you dig a hole. Two problems stack up here: low winter chill and a fungus that loves your weather. Get ahead of both and you c
Growing Southern Highbush Blueberries in the Coastal Fog Belt
Along the Santa Cruz, Capitola, and Aptos coast, the cool mild air is exactly what blueberries like. The one thing the fog does not give you is acidic soil, so this is a good blueberry climate that asks you to fix the ground first.
Growing Romaine Lettuce in the Coastal Fog Belt
If you garden in the immediate coastal band, the foggy strip through Santa Cruz, Capitola, the Aptos coast, and out toward Davenport, you have landed in the single best place in the county to grow lettuce. The cool, damp summers that frustrate tomato growers are exactly what a romaine wants.
Growing Grapes in the Santa Cruz Coastal Fog Belt
Grapes and the coastal fog belt are an honest mismatch. The cool, damp mornings that make this stretch of Santa Cruz County so pleasant to live in are the same conditions that make grapes struggle. You can grow them, but you have to choose carefully and work with the climate, not
Growing Everbearing Strawberries in the Santa Cruz Coastal Fog Belt
The cool foggy coast is classic strawberry ground. Day-neutral plants reward you with a long, gentle picking season here, as long as you stay ahead of gray mold, slugs, and birds.
Growing Feijoa (Pineapple Guava) in the Santa Cruz Coastal Fog Belt
If you garden in the foggy coastal band from Santa Cruz through Aptos and Capitola, the feijoa, or pineapple guava, may be the most rewarding fruit you are not yet growing. This is one of the rare subtropical-looking fruits that genuinely prefers your cool, salty coastal air to i
Growing Sugar Snap Peas in the Santa Cruz Coastal Fog Belt
If you garden in Santa Cruz, Capitola, Aptos along the water, or out toward Davenport, the fog belt is about the best place in the county to grow sugar snap peas. The cool, mild, drawn-out season is exactly what they want.
Growing Eureka Lemons in the Santa Cruz Coastal Fog Belt
If you garden in the foggy coastal strip and you want a real, mouth-puckering lemon rather than the milder Meyer, the Eureka lemon (and its close cousin the Lisbon) is your workhorse. It is the true acid lemon of the grocery aisle, thornier and tarter than a Meyer, and on the coo
Growing Bush Beans in the Santa Cruz Coastal Fog Belt
If you garden along the immediate coast, around Santa Cruz, Capitola, the Aptos shoreline, or out toward Davenport, bush beans are a yes with one big asterisk: wait for warm soil. Blue Lake snap beans will reward you here, but only after you stop sowing too early.
Growing Jalapenos in the Coastal Fog Belt
If you garden in the fog belt along Santa Cruz, Capitola, Aptos, or out toward Davenport, jalapenos are a stretch, not a sure thing. You can grow them, but you have to chase every degree of heat the marine layer keeps stealing back.
Growing Brussels Sprouts in the Santa Cruz Coastal Fog Belt
If you garden in the cool coastal fog belt of Santa Cruz County, the immediate coast through Santa Cruz, Live Oak, and the foggy reach toward Aptos, you are growing Brussels sprouts in their American heartland. The cool, foggy coast from Salinas up to Half Moon Bay is where this
Growing Broccoli in the Santa Cruz Coastal Fog Belt
If you garden in the immediate coastal band, the foggy strip through Santa Cruz, Capitola, the Aptos coast, and out toward Davenport, you have landed in one of the best broccoli spots in California. The cool, damp summers that frustrate tomato growers are exactly what broccoli wa
Growing Bell Peppers in the Santa Cruz Coastal Fog Belt
If you garden in the immediate fog belt, the cool coastal strip from the west side of Santa Cruz through Live Oak and the beach side of Capitola and Aptos, and you have wondered why your bell peppers stay green and never turn red, this is the honest page. The answer is the fog, a