April closes out garlic's sowing window here — the same month the temperate zone's window opens, and a full month before cool/mountain gardeners can even start. Citrus trees join the sowing list for the first time this year too, with lemon, mandarin and orange all inside their planting window from this month.

Quick Answer: What to Sow Now

Nine crops are open for sowing this April: beetroot, carrot, garlic, lemon, mandarin, orange, pak choy, radish and silverbeet.

Garlic — Last Call Here, First Call Elsewhere

This zone's March–April garlic window closes at the end of this month, right as temperate gardens are only just opening theirs (April–May) and cool/mountain gardens still have a month to wait before May–June arrives. It's the same logic behind this zone's early start: mild winters give garlic less natural cold-chilling, so getting cloves in the ground early substitutes for the chill period colder zones provide on their own.

If you haven't planted yet, this is genuinely the deadline — plant cloves 5cm deep and 15cm apart, for a roughly seven-month run through to an October–November harvest. Both sourced varieties come from Koanga Institute: Elephant Garlic, spaced 15cm on the diagonal, and Rocombole Early Red, packed in tighter at 10–12.5cm. Snap off Elephant's flower heads while they're still young so the bulb gets the plant's energy instead. Rust and White Rot in NZ Garlic is worth a read if disease pressure has been an issue in previous seasons.

New This Month: Citrus Trees

Lemon, mandarin and orange all move into their planting window this April, going in as potted nursery stock rather than sown seed — the same April–September window applies uniformly across all three NZ zones, unlike garlic's zone-specific timing above. Best Lemon, Best Mandarin and Best Orange Varieties cover which cultivar suits your situation in more depth than fits here, including where zone genuinely does and doesn't change the choice.

The Regulars: No Deadline Pressure

Unlike garlic, beetroot, carrot, radish and silverbeet are all comfortably mid-window this month, with months of sowing time still ahead — direct sow all four, keeping carrot beds evenly moist until germination. Pak choy has also left the summer bolting risk behind and can go in without the shade-cloth precautions January and February called for.

Yacon's Relaxed Timeline

Yacon's harvest window opens this month and runs through to July — noticeably longer than the temperate zone's short March–April window, which is basically already closing as this one opens. The reason is specific to this zone: a late, mild first autumn frost means tubers don't need to be rushed out of the ground here. Koanga's own guidance is that mild, drier areas can leave yacon tubers in the soil right through winter rather than lifting on a deadline.

Also Harvestable This Month

April also opens the harvest window for tamarillo, running all the way through to November on an established tree. Basil, capsicum, courgette, eggplant, feijoa, lettuce, passionfruit, peas, pumpkin, spinach and tomato are all still cropping too.

Timing Notes for Sub-Tropical Gardens

This zone's frost risk doesn't open until May, so April is effectively the last frost-free month before that window arrives — worth finishing citrus and garlic plantings now while there's no cold-protection concern to plan around at all.

That timing also explains why this month carries more sourced deadlines than most: garlic's window closing, citrus opening, and yacon getting the extra breathing room a mild autumn frost allows are all pointing at the same underlying fact — May is the real turning point in this zone's calendar, and April is the last month to get ahead of it rather than react to it.

Recommended Cultivars

  • Beetroot — Bull's Blood (Kings Seeds NZ, Koanga Institute)
  • Carrot — Akaroa Long Red (Koanga Institute), Amsterdam Sprint (Kings Seeds NZ)
  • Garlic — Elephant Garlic, Rocombole Early Red (both Koanga Institute)
  • Silverbeet — Bright Yellow, Ford Hook Giant (both Kings Seeds NZ)

Lemon, mandarin, orange, pak choy and radish don't have an approved cultivar pick sourced for this zone yet.

Know your zone? Explore the full NZ Sub-Tropical Planting Calendar for month-by-month sowing and harvest timing.