What to Plant in April: The Real US Guide, Region by Region

April is the most confusing month in gardening, and nobody tells beginners why. The seed catalogs make it sound like everything should go in the ground right now. Your local nursery is packed with tomato starts. Your neighbor just planted. But if you're in Minnesota or Vermont or Colorado, planting tomatoes outside in April is an expensive way to learn about frost.

Here's the truth: April is a green light for about half the country and a yellow light for the other half. The dividing line is your last frost date, and it varies by as much as six weeks across US regions. This guide tells you exactly where you stand.

The only question that matters in April

Before anything else, look up your last frost date. This is the date after which your area is statistically unlikely to see another killing frost. For warm-season plants (tomatoes, peppers, squash, basil), you want to transplant two weeks after this date, not on it.

Find your exact date at the Old Farmer's Almanac frost date tool using your zip code. Once you have that number, everything in this guide clicks into place.

Plant these right now, regardless of your region

Cool-season crops thrive in the temperatures April actually delivers. They handle a light frost (28°F and above) without complaint, and most of them actually taste better after a cold night because the plant converts starches to sugars as a cold defense.

If you're in the northern half of the country and your last frost date is still weeks away, these are your April plants. Get them in the ground now, before temperatures climb into the 80s and bolt your lettuce into oblivion.

Warm-season crops: it depends entirely on your region

Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, cucumbers, melons, and basil all need consistently warm soil (above 60°F at 4 inches deep) and air temperatures that don't dip below 50°F at night. In the South, Southwest, and coastal California, that's April. In most of the Midwest and Northeast, you're looking at May or even early June.

What about starting from seed indoors?

If your last frost date is still 6 or more weeks away, April is an excellent time to start warm-season crops indoors under lights. Tomatoes and peppers need 6 to 8 weeks of indoor growing time before they're ready to transplant. Start them now, harden them off in May, and you'll have robust transplants ready to go in the ground at exactly the right time.

The hardening off process is often skipped and almost always regretted. It means gradually exposing your indoor-grown seedlings to outdoor conditions over 7 to 10 days: start with an hour of shade, work up to a full day of sun, and let them experience a cool (but not freezing) night before transplanting. This process toughens the cell walls and prevents transplant shock.

April by region: what to actually do

The April cheat sheet