What to Plant in April: A Monthly Planting Guide

I am loving the beautiful spring weather! Hopefully you are having good weather too, wherever you are. As the frost goes away and the weather gets warmer, April is perfect for planting.

Spring flowering bulbs, trees and shrubs may be starting to bloom with color in my garden, but there are still a lot of seeds waiting to be planted.

In this guide, I'll discuss what to plant in April, including vegetable crops to direct sow, how to start fast-growing summer crops indoors, flowers to plant, and garden tasks to do in April.

Locally Grown

Eating local produce gives you the freshest and best produce for your table. And what could be better than walking right out your back door to a garden full of amazing produce?

That’s why I have created these guides for what to plant in February, what to plant in March, and what to plant in May, to help you get a garden started on the right foot.

For the crops that you aren't growing yourself, you can still eat local and support your local economy by using Farmish- a global app with a local focus that connects buyers and sellers of locally grown produce. Visit Farmish to get started buying and selling homegrown produce, backyard chicken eggs, honey, plants, trees, garden supplies, and more!

What to Plant in April (Direct Sowing)

There are a lot of varieties that can be direct sown in April. I have broken them into three main categories: leafy greens, root vegetables, and miscellaneous other crops.

Planting Leafy Greens

Lettuce is the quintessential leafy spring crop that everyone loves to grow. I've shared all about growing lettuce, types of lettuce, and how to harvest lettuce. But don’t forget other greens like spinach, arugula, mustard greens, radicchio, and swiss chard! 

Start these early because they do not like warm season temperatures. (Watch the video for specific germination temperatures and other planting info.) I am using high intensity spacing to sow these leafy greens, sowing one seed every ½-inch. 

As they grow up, the rows will be nice and dense. This will protect the soil from the sun and keep it cooler. It will also reduce evaporation, suppress weeds, and double or triple the amount grown in the same space. 

Planting Root Vegetables

The root vegetables I direct sow in April are radishes, beets, carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, turnips, and potatoes. April is a great time to start these because most of them do not like hot weather.

Beets can be sown now and then every two weeks into the month of June. Then, after a short break, you can start succession sowing beets again for a fall harvest. This will give you an almost continuous harvest of beets throughout the growing season!

For more information, check out these growing guides on how to grow beets, how to grow carrots, and how to plant potatoes.

Sowing Other Crops

If the weather cooperates, I like to direct sow peas in March. But April is not too late.

There are also some cold hardy herbs that I start indoors in March or direct sow in April. These include cilantro, basil, parsley, sage, oregano, and chives.

If you want to plant any other crops that takes a very long time to mature, like celery, you should sow seeds for those now as well. (Here is the MIgardener guide to learn how to grow celery.)

Best Tool for Direct Sowing

One simple tool has changed my life when it comes to planting. It saves a lot of time, especially when I am sowing a lot of seed. It is called a crossboard.

For years, my friends in the UK asked me why I was not using a crossboard, and once I tried it, I loved it. A cross board is simply a 2x6 that spans the width of a raised garden bed, sitting on top, allowing the gardener to sit, walk, or kneel on the crossboard when planting without compacting the soil. It is my new favorite tool for direct sowing seeds!

Timeframes For When to Start Seeds Indoors

There are really important timeframes for timing when to start seeds indoors that will give you the greatest success. For a vegetable garden, there are three main seed starting seasons: main season summertime crops usually started in February, early spring cold hardy crops usually started in March, and fast growing summer crops usually started in April.

This last group of fast growing summer crops are any crops that need to be started 3-5 weeks before the last estimated frost date. In Michigan, I start these in early April.

You want to get a head start on these crops, but if you start them too early, they will be too advanced and stressed before you can plant them. If you start them too late, you are losing valuable time in the growing season.

Seeds to Start Indoors in April

The fast-growing summer crops I am starting right now include cucumbers, melons, squash, beans, and herbs. Here are just a few of the varieties:

• Boston Pickling Cucumber - The ideal pickling variety with its thin skin and solid flesh, it will absorb any flavor you surround it with.

• White Wonder Cucumber - The White Wonder is one of the most beautiful cucumbers in the world! Wonderfully crisp, this variety is best for fresh eating.

• Marketer Cucumber - A reliable choice for both novice and experienced gardeners, offering high yields, and renowned for its exceptional flavor and versatility.

• Armenian Yard-Long Cucumber - These fun, snake-shaped cucumbers are tasty and refreshing, especially in the hot weather months.

• Zucchini Black Beauty - The plants produce dark green, glossy, straight, and slender zucchini.

• Bianco Di Trieste Zucchini - This pale green summer squash boasts exquisite tenderness and flavor.

• Hale’s Best Jumbo Cantaloupe - Thrives in hot weather bearing a sweet, rich, sherbert orange flesh.

• Honey Rock Melon - A heavily netted cantaloupe with rich, sweet flesh that is ideal for small garden spaces.

• Kazakh Melon - A petite early variety that is perfect for short seasons.

• Orangeglo Watermelon - This watermelon produces very sweet, juicy, medium-size fruits that are dark green on the outside and deep orange inside.

• Sugar Baby Watermelon - A popular heirloom variety that produces 8 to 12 pound melons with fine-textured flesh and a thin rind. If you struggle growing watermelon because you live in a colder climate with a shorter growing season, this is the watermelon for you!

• Mammoth Basil - As the name suggests, Mammoth Basil is a robust variety known for its large, ruffled leaves that can grow up to 4 inches long.

• Bouquet Dill —This herb is beautiful in cut flower arrangements, and its leaves, immature flowers, and mature seeds make delicious pickling spices.

• Triple Curled Parsley - This is a favorite to add to juices or smoothies, but a little goes a long way!

• Florence Fennel - This underappreciated vegetable is beginning to make headlines among the health community. It is high in phytonutrients, Vitamins C and A, with minerals potassium, iron, and magnesium.

• Common English Thyme - Thyme is one of the most widely used culinary herbs. It has an intensely lemony aroma with a subtle Mediterranean taste.

I am using Bootstrap Farmer 4-cell packs to start all these seeds in because they provide enough soil for these plants to grow for 4-7 weeks, but not so much soil that it causes problems or wastes space. Pro-Tip: Start melons and summer squash in their own trays! Don’t plant them in trays next to herbs or smaller plants. They will overshadow and crowd the smaller plants.

Planting Beans

Some gardeners have trouble growing beans because they don’t wait for warm enough soil temperatures. I like to start bush beans indoors now and wait for warmer soil temperatures to direct sow pole beans in the garden. (Pole beans are much less forgiving. I don't recommend trying to start them indoors.)

Start these varieties of beans indoors in April:

• Contender Bush Bean - This popular and productive heirloom variety known for its early maturity and resilience in various climates. These bush beans produce high yields of 6-8 inch, stringless, tender pods that are perfect for fresh eating, canning, and freezing.

• Antigua Bush Bean - A rare heirloom variety prized for its rich flavor and versatility, it produces plump, ivory-colored seeds that are perfect for soups, stews, and casseroles.

Flowers to Start in April

I love growing flowers even more now than when I first started gardening. I enjoy the shapes, colors, textures, and benefits that flowers add to the garden.

I have about 3-4 weeks until my last estimated frost date, which makes now the perfect time to plant some of Mrs. MIgardener’s favorite flowers: zinnias. This year I will be growing Candy Stripe Zinnias, Envy Lime Green Zinnias, and Isabellina Zinnias.

Garden Tasks in April

There is so much that can be done in the garden in April. I have begun harvesting from the cold hardy varieties that I started succession sowing in March and I will continue succession planting throughout April.

Now is also a good time to clean and prepare the garden, fertilize perennials and fruit trees, fill raised garden beds, amend the soil, and add fresh mulch as needed. It is also a good time to work towards a weed free garden and learn how to stop the most invasive weeds in the garden.

Keep taking care of the the seedlings that you started earlier this year, repotting them, or transplanting them into the garden when they are ready. And please, avoid these home remedies for moldy seedlings that could kill your plants!