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, broccoli is still a good crop for you. It just asks for a little more attention to timing than it does down on the foggy coast.

If you garden in the Pajaro Valley, the warm farm country around Watsonville and the lower Pajaro River flats, bell peppers are one of your easiest wins. This is the county's warmest microclimate, and peppers ripen red here as reliably as anywhere in the region.

If you garden in Watsonville, Freedom, Aromas, or anywhere in the Pajaro Valley, you won the Santa Cruz County growing lottery. You have the warmest temperatures, longest season, most sunshine, and most flexibility in the county. While coastal gardeners struggle to ripen tomatoes and mountain gardeners deal with extreme heat swings, you have ideal conditions for heat-lovers, greens, and just about everything. This guide covers what thrives here, seasonal timing, and strategies for making the most of your exceptional conditions.