What SB 1383 means for Santa Cruz gardeners, plus City vs County curbside organics rules, what goes in the bin, the $40 compost rebate, and local workshops.

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 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 understand 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

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.

If you garden in the county's warm sunny pocket, the hill belts above the fog around Soquel, Aptos, and the sunnier side of Santa Cruz, brace yourself: a single Sungold plant here can bury you in fruit. This is the easy button of Santa Cruz tomatoes.

The Banana Belt is the best place in Santa Cruz County to try a low-chill peach, but better is not the same as easy. The warm thermal slopes above the fog give you the heat a peach craves to ripen sweet fruit, and the drier, sunnier air eases disease pressure compared with the co

The San Lorenzo Valley is good heritage apple country, with one important rule: get the tree onto a sunny ridge or upper slope. The valley's cool winters bank plenty of the chill apples need, and its classic varieties thrive here. The catch is the shade. Apples want sun, and this

If you garden under the redwoods of Felton, Ben Lomond, or Boulder Creek, you know the frustration of growing fruiting crops in dappled shade. Lettuce is the happy exception. For a cool-season green, the valley's shade is not a problem to overcome. It is an asset.

There is no better place in California to grow a heritage apple than the Pajaro Valley. A century ago, the orchards around Watsonville were among the most important apple-growing ground on the planet, and the valley still carries that legacy in its soil, its climate, and its tree

If you garden in Felton, Ben Lomond, or Boulder Creek, you have quietly been handed the best blueberry soil in Santa Cruz County. The acidic redwood ground that frustrates so many other crops is exactly what blueberries want.

The Banana Belt's warmth is a gift for most crops, but apples have a quirk: they want cold. These warm, frost-free slopes bank fewer winter chill hours than the cooler valleys, so growing a heritage apple here is about matching the variety to the chill you actually get. Done righ

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.