Here’s a zone-by-zone to-do list for the month of April.

If you don’t know what USDA Plant Hardiness Zone you live in, check the map here to find out.

April To-Do List for Zone 3

• Dig up and enjoy parsnips still left in the garden from last fall.
• Dig compost into beds as soon as the soil can be worked.
• Fertilize established lawns.
• If weather allows, plant onion sets, lettuce, spinach, peas, sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus), carrots, and parsnips in the garden.
• Indoors, continue to start seeds of squash, melons, and corn.
• Start gladiolus corms indoors.
• Sprout seed potatoes by moving them from cold storage into room temperature.
• In the last week of the month, remove winter covering from tender roses, perennials, and strawberries.

April To-Do List for Zone 4

• When the soil has warmed and dried, plant cold-tolerant crops, such as peas, spinach, lettuce, radishes, and onion.
• In flowerbeds, plant lilies, primroses, and lilies-of-the-valley.
• Plant raspberries as soon as possible, but wait until the soil has begun to warm before planting strawberries.
• Dig and divide perennials, such as daylilies and irises.
• Indoors, start tomato seeds if you plan to set them out under protective covering next month.
• Start broccoli seeds indoors for an early crop—but don’t delay; soon it will be too warm.

April To-Do List for Zone 5

• If the ground has thawed, divide and replant perennials, such as asters, bee balm, and hostas.
• Plant roses and lily bulbs.
• When the ground is warm and dry, transplant early tomatoes outdoors, inside protective Wallo’Waters.
• Seed a second crop of lettuce (start the seeds indoors or sow them directly in the garden).
• Sow spinach in the garden to get tender leaves before the weather warms.

April To-Do List for Zone 6

• Clean up the garden in preparation for the season ahead: Remove last year’s dead plants, rake back winter mulches, and top-dress beds with compost.
• After you’ve finished preparing your beds, plant potatoes, peas, spinach, and other leafy greens as well as beets, turnips, and carrots.
• Put up a trellis for tall varieties of peas as soon as they sprout.
• Dig, divide, and replant perennials, such as helenium, fall asters, Shasta daisies, chrysanthemums, and phlox.
• As soon as the weather settles, plant transplants of pansies, forget-me-nots (Myosotis spp.), foxglove (Digitalis spp.), and other cool-weather flowers.
• Sow seeds of sweet peas, bachelor’s buttons (Centaurea cyanus), and larkspur (Consolida ajacis) in flowerbeds.

April To-Do List for Zone 7

• Pass by broccoli and cabbage on sale at garden centers—hot weather will soon arrive, causing plants to go to seed instead of forming edible heads.
• Thin crowded carrots, chard, and lettuce.
• Remove floating row covers from peas early in the month. Drive tall, twiggy branches into the ground next to the plants for support.
• Mulch around the base of cool-season crops to keep their roots cool and moist.
• Select new azalea and rhododendron bushes while they’re in bloom to make sure that the color complements your landscape.

April To-Do List for Zone 8

• Give flowers and vegetables a foliar feeding of liquid seaweed or compost tea; spray the liquid nutrients on foliage early in the day before it gets too hot.
• Plant black-eyed, purple hull and crowder peas, okra, peanuts, sweet potatoes, squash, melons, cucumbers, and corn—all can withstand the heat that will arrive in less than 2 months.
• Keep planting basil—it loves the warm weather.
• Plant "bulbs" of caladium, calla, gladiolus, and water lily.
• Keep adding kitchen scraps and grass clippings to your compost pile.
• Replenish your mulch!

April To-Do List for Zone 9

• If slugs and snails are decimating your plants, collect them in the evening, when you’re most likely to spot them.
• Plant pumpkins, summer squash, melons, and other vegetables that thrive in heat.
• Every 2 weeks from now until late summer, plant small blocks of bush beans and sweet corn to extend the harvest until frost.
• Thin fruits on fruit trees to increase their size and keep branches from breaking.
• Plant summer bedding plants, such as petunias, lisianthus (Eustoma grandiflorum), wax begonias, and impatiens.
• Sow seeds of nasturtiums, marigolds, portulaca, amaranthus, salvias, vinca (Catharanthus roseus), sunflowers, and zinnias.
• Plant perennials like ornamental alliums, bellflowers (Campanula spp.), daisies, yarrow, daylilies, coreopsis, penstemon, perennial geraniums (Geranium spp.), iris, and statice.

April To-Do List for Zone 10

• Plant perennials so they can settle in before the summer heat arrives; give them plenty of water.
• Plant heat-loving bedding plants, such as vinca (Catharanthus roseus), strawflowers (Helichrysum bracteatum), blanket flowers (Gaillardia spp.), and gazanias.
• Plant roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa), amaranth, and Malabar spinach (Basella alba) now through August; make sure you give the Malabar spinach some shade and extra water.
• Try some tropical edibles: Buy malanga, gingerroot, and others at the market. Cut them into pieces at least 1⁄2 inch long, and plant. Harvest from October through December.
• Trellis tropical cucurbits (luffa, chayote, Tahitian squash, and so on) on a fence, and reap the rewards this fall.