Part one of the summer garden tour, straight from our patch here in Santa Cruz — zone 9, straw bales, and a bed full of tomato seedlings getting a head start under cut-open milk jugs.
Milk jug cloches
Every gallon jug that comes through the kitchen gets a second life out here. Cut the bottom off, leave the cap on or off depending on the night, and you’ve got a free mini greenhouse for young tomato starts — protection from wind and cold snaps until they’re sturdy enough to go it alone.
Straw bale gardening
The straw underfoot isn’t just mulch — it’s doing double duty as pathing and weed suppression between the beds, and it breaks down into the soil over the season. Cheap, low-effort, and it keeps the mud down after a Santa Cruz winter.
On the list this year
Kakai squash (those striped seeds are as much fun to grow as they are to roast), sweet corn, and strawberries tucked in along the edges. Zone 9 gives us a long enough season to let all three actually mature, which isn’t something I take for granted.
Part two of the tour is coming — stay tuned for how it all turned out.
Forest Girl Farm 
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