`AxTransformer` enables conversion from data coordinates to tick locations, `set_date_ticks` allows custom date ranges to be applied to plots (including a seaborn heatmap)

mpl_date_tick_handler.py

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from collections.abc import Iterable
from sklearn import linear_model

class AxTransformer:
    def __init__(self, datetime_vals=False):
        self.datetime_vals = datetime_vals
        self.lr = linear_model.LinearRegression()
        
        return
    
    def process_tick_vals(self, tick_vals):
        if not isinstance(tick_vals, Iterable) or isinstance(tick_vals, str):
            tick_vals = [tick_vals]
            
        if self.datetime_vals == True:
            tick_vals = pd.to_datetime(tick_vals).astype(int).values
            
        tick_vals = np.array(tick_vals)
            
        return tick_vals
    
    def fit(self, ax, axis='x'):
        axis = getattr(ax, f'get_{axis}axis')()
        
        tick_locs = axis.get_ticklocs()
        tick_vals = self.process_tick_vals([label._text for label in axis.get_ticklabels()])
        
        self.lr.fit(tick_vals.reshape(-1, 1), tick_locs)
        
        return
    
    def transform(self, tick_vals):        
        tick_vals = self.process_tick_vals(tick_vals)
        tick_locs = self.lr.predict(np.array(tick_vals).reshape(-1, 1))
        
        return tick_locs
    
def set_date_ticks(ax, start_date, end_date, axis='y', date_format='%Y-%m-%d', **date_range_kwargs):
    dt_rng = pd.date_range(start_date, end_date, **date_range_kwargs)

    ax_transformer = AxTransformer(datetime_vals=True)
    ax_transformer.fit(ax, axis=axis)
    
    getattr(ax, f'set_{axis}ticks')(ax_transformer.transform(dt_rng))
    getattr(ax, f'set_{axis}ticklabels')(dt_rng.strftime(date_format))
    
    ax.tick_params(axis=axis, which='both', bottom=True, top=False, labelbottom=True)
    
    return ax