Vegetables to Plant Now: Early April

Now we can really start planting stuff!
Seedlings bought from a nursery (if you must go, with everything that's happening in the world) can start getting transplanted into the ground. Anything they’re selling now would be cold tolerant enough to handle our temperatures.

The seeds I planted mid March are not blowing me away with their performance—I don’t have a professional growing situation, so I’ll chalk it up to that. They get a little cold because my scrounged greenhouse has some holes in it! Most nights I’ve been bringing them indoors, which might be a shock to their systems. Now that nights are hovering around 40 degrees, I’m going to leave them in the greenhouse.
I also sprinkled some compost on top of them for extra nutrients. The more delicate seedlings will get watered with diluted liquid fertilizer.

Oh, and here’s another reason your seedlings might not look like those that come from a nursery, especially any perennials you’re growing—growers manipulate the plants to get them looking amazing. Not always in a bad way, but in ways that home growers don’t have the equipment for. Some of their potted perennials are a few years old and some of them have been given various fertilizers (those little green balls you see in the dirt are inorganic, slow-release fertilizer). So a home grower can’t really approximate nursery-grown stock. Eventually all the plants will grow lush and beautiful, but it will take longer if you’re growing at home.

That said, I will probably start my vegetable seeds two weeks earlier next year just based on the slow start they’ve had. My timing for when to plant seeds has come from the Johnny’s Seed Catalog and The New Seed Starters Handbook by Nancy Bubel.

Ok so the reason you’re reading this post: here's what you can plant now, in early April. (Say, April 1st-10th)
The best days for planting based on moon cycles will be those right around the full moon on April 7th (April 5-6 and 8-9). Seeds absorb more water at that time. I admit that I planted peas today (April 3rd) because this gentle rain is absolutely perfect for seeds or transplants.

Indoors in cell trays
The only things you’re going to be planting indoors in pots now are warm season transplants, such as:

• peppers
  
• tomatoes
  
• tomatillos

Seeds you can plant directly in the ground

•  beets
  
• chinese cabbage/Choi
  
• carrot (though it might be a little early)
  
• chard
• kale (if you have not seeded it indoors)
  
• lettuce (sow 10 seeds a week for the next few months)
  
• mustard greens
  
• onion
  
• parsnip (after daffodils bloom, which around here they have)
  
• pea (Early April is you last chance to plant peas. For me, maybe the third time will be the charm. Round 1 was too early and they rotted. Round 2 saw 4 yards of compost dumped on top of it.)
  
• potato (you start these from existing potatoes, called seed potatoes)
  
• salsify
  
• turnip

If you’re panicking because you're not ready to plant, know that everything on that list can be planted throughout April (or throughout the whole growing season). The only thing that needs to get planted now is peas.

Seedlings you can transplant into the ground
If you bought them, or grew them yourself and they are large and healthy.

• broccoli
  
• cabbage
  
• cauliflower
• chard
• collards
  
• endive/radicchio
  
• kale
  
• leek
  
• lettuce
  
• mustard greens
  
• onion
  
• pea (traditional wisdom says you can’t have success transplanting peas, but I see people do it all the time)