Empty bed
What to plant after carrots
The short answer
After carrots in August: quick salads, spinach, chard, turnips, kohlrabi, winter lettuce, spring cabbage, overwintering onions or a green manure. In October: garlic, overwintering crops, or broad beans in a mild, sheltered garden.
Not parsnips or more carrots.
Early carrots come out in summer and maincrop in autumn. Either way, the family to keep away is the carrot family, which includes parsnips.
Carrots lifted in August
What Vercro's catalogue has in its sowing window when the bed clears in mid August, checked against carrots with the same code as the Vercro app. No frost date is applied here; “ready about” counts the catalogue's growing time from mid August.
| Window | J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carrots in the bedApril to August | January: no | February: no | March: no | April: yes | May: yes | June: yes | July: yes | August: yes | September: no | October: no | November: no | December: no |
| Then radishAugust to September | January: no | February: no | March: no | April: no | May: no | June: no | July: no | August: yes | September: yes | October: no | November: no | December: no |
| Or winter lettuceAugust to November | January: no | February: no | March: no | April: no | May: no | June: no | July: no | August: yes | September: yes | October: yes | November: yes | December: no |
Quick crops (2)
Ready in about eight weeks or less.
- RadishSow outside. Ready about September.
- RocketSow outside. Ready about September.
Need longer (18)
Worth it only if your first frost is late enough. The tool below checks that for your area.
- MizunaSow outside. Ready about September to October.
- Oriental MustardSow outside. Ready about September to October.
- Pak Choi (Autumn)Sow outside. Ready about September to October.
- Rocket (Winter)Sow outside. Ready about September to October.
- SpinachSow outside. Ready about September to October.
- Spinach (Autumn)Sow outside. Ready about September to October.
- LettuceSow outside. Ready about September to October.
- Pak choiSow outside. Ready about September to October.
- ChardSow outside. Ready about October.
- Kohlrabi (Autumn)Sow outside. Ready about October.
- KohlrabiSow outside. Ready about October.
- TurnipSow outside. Ready about October.
- Chinese CabbageSow outside. Ready about October to November.
- Lamb's LettuceSow outside. Ready about October to November.
- Perpetual SpinachSow outside. Ready about October to November.
- Spring OnionSow outside. Ready about October.
- Turnip (Autumn)Sow outside. Ready about October to November.
- Kale (Autumn)Raise indoors, then plant. Ready about December to January.
Stand through winter (3)
Not racing this year's frost: they stand over winter and crop next year.
- Winter LettuceRaise indoors, then plant. Ready about October to November.
- Spring cabbageSow. Ready about March to April.
- Overwintering OnionsSow outside. Ready about May to June.
Green manures (3)
To cover and feed the soil rather than to eat.
- Green ManureSow outside. Ready about September to October.
- Mustard (Green Manure)Sow outside. Ready about September to October.
- Phacelia (Green Manure)Sow outside. Ready about September to October.
Nothing in its window this month is flagged to wait because of carrots.
Carrots lifted in October
What Vercro's catalogue has in its sowing window when the bed clears in mid October, checked against carrots with the same code as the Vercro app. No frost date is applied here; “ready about” counts the catalogue's growing time from mid October.
| Window | J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carrots in the bedApril to October | January: no | February: no | March: no | April: yes | May: yes | June: yes | July: yes | August: yes | September: yes | October: yes | November: no | December: no |
| Then rocketOctober to November | January: no | February: no | March: no | April: no | May: no | June: no | July: no | August: no | September: no | October: yes | November: yes | December: no |
| Or winter spinachOctober to January | January: yes | February: no | March: no | April: no | May: no | June: no | July: no | August: no | September: no | October: yes | November: yes | December: yes |
Quick crops (1)
Ready in about eight weeks or less.
- RocketSow outside. Ready about November.
Need longer (2)
Worth it only if your first frost is late enough. The tool below checks that for your area.
- Oriental MustardSow outside. Ready about November to December.
- Lamb's LettuceSow outside. Ready about December to January.
Stand through winter (4)
Not racing this year's frost: they stand over winter and crop next year.
- Winter SpinachSow outside. Ready about December to January.
- Broad Bean (Autumn)Sow outside. Ready about April to June.
- Overwintering PeasRaise indoors, then plant. Ready about April to May.
- GarlicSow outside. Ready about June to July.
Nothing in its window this month is flagged to wait because of carrots.
Why the family matters
Carrots are in the carrot family (Apiaceae) with parsnips, celery, celeriac, fennel and parsley. The RHS says carrot fly overwinters in the soil as larvae or pupae, so a netted crop in the same bed can have flies hatch inside the net. AHDB adds violet root rot, whose sclerotia survive several years without a host.
Worth knowing about carrots beds
Mesh and rotation go together
The RHS says rotation is essential with mesh, or overwintered flies emerge inside the netting.Parsnips count
Same family. Vercro marks them to wait.October leaves little
Late-lifted carrots leave a bed for overwintering crops and green manures.Violet root rot crosses groups
It affects beet and potatoes too (AHDB).
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 each carrot sowing is recorded against its bed. When the bed clears, the Garden plan lists what could go in, and the bed's history marks carrot-family crops to go 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 carrots; 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.
- Carrot fly, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
- Violet root rot, AHDB. Read 19 September 2026.
- Carrots: 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.