Empty bed
What to plant after garlic
The short answer
After garlic in July there is time for beetroot, carrots, French beans, lettuce, spinach, chard, turnips, kohlrabi and pointed cabbage, depending on your first frost, plus quick crops such as radish and rocket.
Keep the rest of the onion family (onions, shallots, leeks, spring onions) out of this bed.
Garlic comes out in early to mid summer, which leaves a bed with most of a growing season still ahead. That makes it one of the most useful crops to follow.
Garlic lifted in July
What Vercro's catalogue has in its sowing window when the bed clears in mid July, checked against garlic 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garlic in the bedOctober to July | January: yes | February: yes | March: yes | April: yes | May: yes | June: yes | July: yes | August: no | September: no | October: yes | November: yes | December: yes |
| 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.
- RadishSow outside. Ready about August.
- RocketSow 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.
- MizunaSow outside. Ready about August to September.
- Oriental MustardSow outside. Ready about August to September.
- SpinachSow outside. Ready about August to September.
- LettuceSow outside. Ready about August to September.
- Pak choiSow outside. Ready about August to September.
- ChardSow outside. Ready about September.
- French BeanSow outside. Ready about September.
- Kohlrabi (Autumn)Sow outside. Ready about September.
- KohlrabiSow outside. Ready about September.
- TurnipSow outside. Ready about September.
- BeetrootSow outside. Ready about September to October.
- Chinese CabbageSow outside. Ready about September to October.
- Lamb's LettuceSow outside. Ready about September to October.
- Pointed CabbageSow outside. Ready about September to October.
- Turnip (Autumn)Sow outside. Ready about September to October.
- CarrotSow outside. Ready about September to October.
- Kale (Autumn)Raise 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 cabbageSow. 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 garlic. Put them in a different bed.
Spring Onion
Why the family matters
Garlic is in the onion family with onions, shallots, leeks and chives. The disease that matters is white rot: the RHS says it can survive in soil for at least 15 years, which is why it calls rotation an impractical control once the disease is present. Rotation slows a problem down; it doesn't clear one.
So the aim is not to give white rot a foothold: keep onion-family crops moving round, and don't bring in soil or sets from a bed that has had it.
Worth knowing about garlic beds
Lift on time
The RHS says not to delay once garlic leaves turn yellow. A July clearance gives the next crop the most time.Spring onions count
They are the same family as garlic. The engine marks them to wait here.Autumn garlic goes elsewhere
When it is time to plant garlic again in autumn, pick a different bed.Brassicas are fine here
Nothing about the onion family stands against cabbages, kale or turnips following it.
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
When the garlic bed clears in Vercro, the Garden plan shows what could go there, checked against your frost date, and the bed's history marks onion-family crops as ones to put 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 garlic; 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.
- Onion white rot, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
- Garlic: 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.