Empty bed
What to plant after lettuce
The short answer
In June a lot can still follow: French and runner beans, beetroot, carrots, kale, sweetcorn, more salad. In September it narrows to quick salads, winter lettuce, overwintering onions and green manures.
Lettuce doesn't leave a rotation problem Vercro warns about, so nothing is marked to wait.
Lettuce turns over fast, so a lettuce bed often comes free early in the season. It is one of the easiest crops to follow.
Lettuce cleared in June
What Vercro's catalogue has in its sowing window when the bed clears in mid June, checked against lettuce with the same code as the Vercro app. No frost date is applied here; “ready about” counts the catalogue's growing time from mid June.
| Window | J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lettuce in the bedApril to June | January: no | February: no | March: no | April: yes | May: yes | June: yes | July: no | August: no | September: no | October: no | November: no | December: no |
| Then radishJune to July | January: no | February: no | March: no | April: no | May: no | June: yes | July: yes | August: no | September: no | October: no | November: no | December: no |
| Or purple sprouting broccoliJune to April | January: yes | February: yes | March: yes | April: yes | May: no | June: yes | 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 July.
- RocketSow outside. Ready about July.
Need longer (25)
Worth it only if your first frost is late enough. The tool below checks that for your area.
- MizunaSow outside. Ready about July to August.
- Oriental MustardSow outside. Ready about July to August.
- SpinachSow outside. Ready about July to August.
- LettuceSow outside. Ready about July to August.
- Pak choiSow outside. Ready about July to August.
- ChardSow outside. Ready about August.
- CucumberSow outside. Growing time counts from planting out, so we don’t date it.
- French BeanSow outside. Ready about August.
- CourgetteSow outside. Growing time counts from planting out, so we don’t date it.
- KohlrabiSow outside. Ready about August.
- TurnipSow outside. Ready about August.
- BeetrootSow outside. Ready about August to September.
- Chinese CabbageSow outside. Ready about August to September.
- Dwarf French BeanSow outside. Ready about August to September.
- KaleSow outside. Ready about August to September.
- Lamb's LettuceSow outside. Ready about August to September.
- PeaSow outside. Ready about August to September.
- Pointed CabbageSow outside. Ready about August to September.
- Runner BeanSow outside. Ready about August to September.
- Spring OnionSow outside. Ready about August.
- CarrotSow outside. Ready about August to September.
- SweetcornSow outside. Ready about August to September.
- BroccoliSow outside. Ready about September.
- PumpkinSow outside. Ready about September to October.
- SwedeSow outside. Ready about November to December.
Stand through winter (1)
Not racing this year's frost: they stand over winter and crop next year.
- Purple Sprouting BroccoliSow outside. Ready about January to April.
Green manures (1)
To cover and feed the soil rather than to eat.
- Green ManureSow outside. Ready about July to August.
Nothing in its window this month is flagged to wait because of lettuce.
Lettuce cleared in September
What Vercro's catalogue has in its sowing window when the bed clears in mid September, checked against lettuce with the same code as the Vercro app. No frost date is applied here; “ready about” counts the catalogue's growing time from mid September.
| Window | J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lettuce in the bedApril to September | January: no | February: no | March: no | April: yes | May: yes | June: yes | July: yes | August: yes | September: yes | October: no | November: no | December: no |
| Then radishSeptember to October | January: no | February: no | March: no | April: no | May: no | June: no | July: no | August: no | September: yes | October: yes | November: no | December: no |
| Or winter lettuceSeptember to December | January: no | February: no | March: no | April: no | May: no | June: no | July: no | August: no | September: yes | October: yes | November: yes | December: yes |
Quick crops (2)
Ready in about eight weeks or less.
- RadishSow outside. Ready about October.
- RocketSow outside. Ready about October.
Need longer (11)
Worth it only if your first frost is late enough. The tool below checks that for your area.
- MizunaSow outside. Ready about October to November.
- Oriental MustardSow outside. Ready about October to November.
- Pak Choi (Autumn)Sow outside. Ready about October to November.
- Rocket (Winter)Sow outside. Ready about October to November.
- SpinachSow outside. Ready about October to November.
- Spinach (Autumn)Sow outside. Ready about October to November.
- LettuceSow outside. Ready about October to November.
- Pak choiSow outside. Ready about October to November.
- Lamb's LettuceSow outside. Ready about November to December.
- Perpetual SpinachSow outside. Ready about November to December.
- Spring OnionSow outside. Ready about November.
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 November to December.
- Winter SpinachSow outside. Ready about November to December.
- Overwintering OnionsSow outside. Ready about June to July.
Green manures (3)
To cover and feed the soil rather than to eat.
- Green ManureSow outside. Ready about October to November.
- Mustard (Green Manure)Sow outside. Ready about October to November.
- Phacelia (Green Manure)Sow outside. Ready about October to November.
Nothing in its window this month is flagged to wait because of lettuce.
Why the family matters
Lettuce is in the daisy family (Asteraceae). Vercro knows of sclerotinia carrying over where lettuce is grown intensively, but treats it as a low concern and raises no warning.
The RHS rotation guidance agrees in spirit: salads can be grown wherever convenient, merely avoiding growing them too often in the same place.
Worth knowing about lettuce beds
Little and often
The RHS sows lettuce a short row every fortnight. See when to sow lettuce.Heat in June
Lettuce sown into the same bed in a heatwave may not come up. Sow in the evening and water with cold water (RHS).Not lettuce every time
Vercro doesn’t warn, but the RHS still suggests not growing salads in the same place too often.A gap-filler, not a main crop
Lettuce is often best used between longer crops rather than as the bed’s whole year.
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 lettuce sowing is a separate planting. When one clears, the Garden plan lists what could go into that space next, checked against your frost date.
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 lettuce; 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.
- Lettuce: 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.