Empty bed
What to plant after broad beans
The short answer
After broad beans in July, cabbage-family crops such as kale for autumn, turnips, kohlrabi, pak choi, pointed cabbage and spring cabbage follow well. Beetroot, carrots, lettuce and chard also have time if your frost is late enough.
Don't follow with more peas or beans.
Broad beans are finished by mid summer, and the traditional follow-on is the cabbage family. There is a real reason for that, but it is smaller than it is often made out to be.
Broad beans cleared in July
What Vercro's catalogue has in its sowing window when the bed clears in mid July, checked against broad beans with the same code as the Vercro app. No frost date is applied here; “ready about” counts the catalogue's growing time from mid July.
| Window | J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Broad beans in the bedMarch to July | January: no | February: no | March: yes | April: yes | May: yes | June: yes | July: yes | August: no | September: no | October: no | November: no | December: no |
| Then radishJuly to August | January: no | February: no | March: no | April: no | May: no | June: no | July: yes | August: yes | September: no | October: no | November: no | December: no |
| Or spring cabbageJuly to March | January: yes | February: yes | March: yes | April: no | May: no | June: no | July: yes | August: yes | September: yes | October: yes | November: yes | December: yes |
Quick crops (2)
Ready in about eight weeks or less.
- RadishFollows wellSow outside. Ready about August.
- RocketFollows wellSow outside. Ready about August.
Need longer (17)
Worth it only if your first frost is late enough. The tool below checks that for your area.
- MizunaFollows wellSow outside. Ready about August to September.
- Oriental MustardFollows wellSow outside. Ready about August to September.
- SpinachSow outside. Ready about August to September.
- LettuceSow outside. Ready about August to September.
- Pak choiFollows wellSow outside. Ready about August to September.
- ChardSow outside. Ready about September.
- Kohlrabi (Autumn)Follows wellSow outside. Ready about September.
- KohlrabiFollows wellSow outside. Ready about September.
- TurnipFollows wellSow outside. Ready about September.
- BeetrootSow outside. Ready about September to October.
- Chinese CabbageFollows wellSow outside. Ready about September to October.
- Lamb's LettuceSow outside. Ready about September to October.
- Pointed CabbageFollows wellSow outside. Ready about September to October.
- Spring OnionSow outside. Ready about September.
- Turnip (Autumn)Follows wellSow outside. Ready about September to October.
- CarrotSow outside. Ready about September to October.
- Kale (Autumn)Follows wellRaise indoors, then plant. Ready about November to December.
Stand through winter (1)
Not racing this year's frost: they stand over winter and crop next year.
- Spring cabbageFollows wellSow. Ready about February to March.
Green manures (1)
To cover and feed the soil rather than to eat.
- Green ManureSow outside. Ready about August to September.
Best to wait (1)
In their sowing window, but the same family as broad beans. Put them in a different bed.
French Bean
Why the family matters
Broad beans are in the pea and bean family (Fabaceae). Growing it again soon matters because pea and bean root rots build up where they are grown repeatedly, so more peas or French beans are marked to wait.
The benefit is nitrogen. The RHS advises cutting the plants down and leaving the roots in the soil to boost nitrogen, and its rotation plans put brassicas after legumes. Garden Organic notes that developing pods use much of that nitrogen, so after a crop grown to harvest the gain is modest. It helps; it doesn't replace feeding.
Worth knowing about broad beans beds
Leave the roots in
Cut the stems at soil level and leave the roots (RHS). Compost the tops."Follows well" means brassicas
Vercro marks hungry crops after peas or beans: here, the cabbage family.Clubroot still counts
A brassica after beans is only a good idea if the bed hasn't had brassicas recently. See brassica rotation.Autumn-sown next year?
If you sow broad beans in autumn, put them in a different bed. See when to sow broad beans.
Check it for your bed and your frost date
Pick when it came out and add your usual first frost (or your postcode). The tool opens with your answer.
How Vercro handles this in a real garden
In Vercro, when the bean bed clears, the Garden plan lists what could go in and whether it will finish before your frost. The rotation check marks cabbage-family crops as following well and peas or beans as better elsewhere.
What this page can't tell you
The honest limits
Sowing months are a national calendar, not your garden's. We can't see your soil, how much room is left, or what else is still growing in the bed. The rotation check looks only at broad beans; your bed's earlier history matters too.
Keep going
Where this comes from
Crop windows, growing times and plant families come from Vercro's own curated crop catalogue, the same data the Vercro app uses. Where a published source says something different, we show both rather than choosing the convenient one. Reviewed 19 September 2026.
- Crop rotation, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
- Peas: grow your own, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
- Field beans (green manure), Garden Organic. Read 19 September 2026.
- Broad beans: grow your own, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
Let each empty bed tell you what could go in
In the Vercro Garden plan, a bed that has come free shows what could go there next, using your location's frost date and what that bed has grown before.