Empty bed
What to plant after onions
The short answer
After onions in August: quick crops such as radish, rocket, pak choi and mizuna; spinach, chard, turnips and kohlrabi if your frost is late enough; winter lettuce or spring cabbage to stand through winter; or a green manure.
Not garlic, overwintering onions, leeks or spring onions: they are the same family.
Spring-planted onions usually come out in late summer. That leaves enough time for fast salads and leafy crops, and it is the right moment for crops that stand through winter.
Onions lifted in August
What Vercro's catalogue has in its sowing window when the bed clears in mid August, checked against onions 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Onions in the bedMarch to August | January: no | February: no | March: yes | 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 (17)
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.
- Turnip (Autumn)Sow outside. Ready about October to November.
- Kale (Autumn)Raise indoors, then plant. Ready about December to January.
Stand through winter (2)
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.
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.
Best to wait (2)
In their sowing window, but the same family as onions. Put them in a different bed.
Spring Onion, Overwintering Onions
Why the family matters
Onions share the onion family with garlic, shallots and leeks, and with it white rot, which the RHS says survives in soil for at least 15 years. That is also why autumn is the moment to be careful: August and September are when overwintering onions go in, and October when garlic does, and neither should go back into this bed.
Worth knowing about onions beds
Autumn onions go elsewhere
Overwintering onions are in their window now, and Vercro marks them to wait in this bed.Leave room for winter crops
Spring cabbage and winter lettuce use the bed over winter instead of leaving it bare.Green manure is a fair choice
Phacelia and mustard can go in now. Mustard is a brassica, so count it as one in your rotation.Heavy soil
Autumn-planted crops in the onion family do poorly in waterlogged ground anyway (RHS).
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 the Vercro Garden plan the cleared onion bed lists what is in its window now and whether each will finish before your frost; the bed's history marks onion-family crops, including overwintering onions, 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 onions; 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.
- Onions: grow your own, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
- Green manures, 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.