Learn what to plant in April with Homesteaders of America Vegetable Garden Growing Guides!
The warmer days of spring are here (or at least right around the corner!) Many vegetables and herbs need to be started indoors 6-8 weeks before the last frost so all gardeners in the United States have something they can be doing in the garden now. If you are in the southern reaches of the country, your garden is well underway and the harvest is starting to roll in! You may want to start sourcing mulch if you live in a drought prone area. Laying down mulch now will help your garden retain moisture when the dry weather hits.
What to Plant in April: Vegetable Garden Growing Guide
How to Use the Growing Guides
In the Growing Guides, you will learn what to plant each month according to when your last frost date.
- Look up your last frost date by zip code if you don’t know it already.
- Choose the Growing Guide for this month
- Find which month your last frost date is in
- Follow the seed starting suggestions on the graphic
The Growing Guides will be targeted for the continental United States, which also includes some of the warmer areas of our country such as southern extremes Texas and Florida. Their growing season is vastly different from folks living in the northernmost states.
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Last Frost Date in January
Late start getting your garden in? It happens to the even the best gardeners. Don’t despair! There are still many plants you can still get into your garden before it’s too late.
Direct Seed
- Beans
- Beets
- Carrots
- Corn
- Cucumbers
- Summer Squash
Transplants
- Tomatoes
- Peppers
- Eggplant
Last Frost Date in February
What to get the most yield from your vegetable garden? Get another succession of cool season crops such as radishes or heat-tolerant lettuce going! If you have the space consider succession planting other quick crops such as beans and summer squash.
As you start bringing in the harvest have your cover crop seeds ready to scatter if you won’t be succession planting. Bare soil easily erodes, losing organic matter and nutrients. The roots of your cover crops will hold soil in place, increase the organic matter, nutrients, and soil life in your garden.
If you will be planting again in a couple months grow a quick cover crop that will appreciate the cooler spring weather. If the space will be left unplanted consider a cover crop that will stand up to your summer heat.
Direct Seed
- Radishes
- Lettuce
- Summer Squash
- Green Beans
Cover Crops
Quick Cover Crops for Cooler Seasons:
- Oats
- Peas
- Rye
Warm Weather Cover Crops:
- Sunn Hemp (grows very tall- you can also use it to shade less heat tolerant plants)
- Trefoil
- Cowpeas
- Buckwheat
Last Frost Date in March
While most of your garden is in and the growing season is well underway, you can maximize your growing efforts through succession planting! Early crops or quick growing ones will be ready to go into the ground again so you can make good use of your garden space and harvest even more.
Direct Seed
- Radishes
- Lettuce
- Greens
- Green Beans
- Carrots, depending on variety
Start Indoors
For succession planting next month plant these indoors:
- Summer Squash
- Cucumbers
Last Frost Date in April
If your last frost date is this month, your garden may already be well on its way with plants that can tolerate more chilly weather. April is the time for you to plant all of your direct started seeds in the ground. Tender seedlings can be transplanted now as well!
Start Indoors
- Unless you have some succession plantings of greens planned, there isn’t anything to be done indoors- it’s time to head outside!
Direct Seed
- Beans
- Beets
- Carrots
- Corn
- Cucumbers
- Kale
- Squash
- Melons
- Sweet Potatoes
- Warm Weather Herbs, such as Basil, Chamomile, Nasturtiums and more
Transplant
- Brassicas, if not done already
- Eggplant
- Onions, if not done already
- Peppers
- Tomatoes
- Herb Seedlings
Last Frost Date in May
It’s starting to feel a lot like spring! If your last frost date will be in May, there is much that can be done in the garden already. Once your soil is able to be worked you can get many cold-hardy vegetables in the ground a month before your last frost.
Start Indoors
- Want a second (or third) succession of greens? Start a round of lettuce indoors to transplant next month.
- Brassicas
Direct Seed
- Lettuce
- Peas
- Potatoes
- Radishes
- Spinach
- Kale
- Swiss Chard
- Turnips
Transplant
- Brassicas
- Onions
- Lettuce
- Spinach
- Cold Tolerant Herbs, such as Fennel
Last Frost Date in June
Wondering what to plant in April when your last frost date is still a couple months away? Other than adding last minute soil amendments or compost to your garden, there’s not much that can be done outside yet. Thankfully, there is still a lot of gardening you can do even though the weather in your neck of the woods is still pretty chilly. So grab a flat, some potting soil, and a packet of seeds then fire up those grow lights and get planting!
Start Indoors
- Lettuce
- Spinach
- Kale
- Swiss Chard
- Onions, if not done already
- Peppers
- Tomatoes
- Eggplant
- Slow-Growing Herbs (see seed packets for details)
Direct Seed
- It may be possible for you to plant peas.
Transplant
- It’s still too cold to plant anything directly in the soil without using season extension though by the end of the month you may be able to transplant onion seedlings or sets.
Homesteaders of America Growing Guides By Month
Must I wait to plant the seeds after the last actual frost date? Mine is April 29th.
For seeds like greens, peas, radishes, etc that would be fine but for seeds that are not cold tolerant I highly recommend waiting. The last frost date isn’t necessarily the “last” frost date. The percentage of frost risk is low enough at that point to go for it. Any earlier, you have a higher chance of losing sensitive heat loving plants (like peppers and tomatoes) if they get frost damage. For some seeds, such as corn, if the soil is too cold they won’t germinate until the soil is warm but until the last frost. I always wait in my garden and didn’t regret it last year when everyone else was taking advantage of a warm spring to plant early. We ended up getting a rare freeze mid-May.