What To Plant
After Brassicas
When your broccoli heads are cut, cabbages tucked away, or kale leaves stripped for the last time, the brassica bed is ready for a shift in character.
The Best Crops To Plant After Brassicas
(The Quick Answer)
Brassicas are heavy feeders that draw deeply from the soil’s reserves, and they can harbor pests and diseases (clubroot, flea beetles) that linger if the family returns too soon.
The safest and healthiest follow-up is to plant carrots, beets, onions, garlic, or legumes - each one offering the soil a different rhythm and new purpose.
Avoid: Other brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, kale, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, mustard, and radish) for at least 3 years in the same bed.
Why These Work
Brassicas feed heavily, especially on nitrogen, and their pests are persistent.
Rotating to lighter feeders or soil-enrichers disrupts pest lifecycles and gives the soil time to rebuild.
Roots and alliums draw nutrients from different zones, while legumes quietly replenish nitrogen.
Not sure which crop is right for following after your brassicas?
Let’s look more closely at the best options, why they work, and how to know when each one is the right choice.
Seeds are promises for the future, neatly tucked into paper.
Best Options to Grow After Brassicas
(The Detailed Answers)
Carrots or Beets
Why it works: Light feeders that grow deep without competing for the nutrients brassicas took.
Best when: You have 55–75 frost-free days left; soil is loose and stone-free.
Consider: Keep the bed evenly moist; thin seedlings to prevent crowding.
Onions or Garlic
Why it works: Alliums pull different nutrients and don’t share brassica pests or diseases.
Best when: You can plant in late summer for overwintering garlic/onions or in spring for a quicker crop.
Consider: Mulch well for winter; rotate alliums annually to prevent disease buildup.
Bush Beans or Peas
Why it works: Legumes are the soil’s quiet philanthropists, pulling nitrogen from thin air and tucking it back into the ground.
Best when: Soil is warm enough for beans or cool enough for peas, depending on the season.
Consider: Inoculate seed for better nodulation, pick often, and don’t be surprised if the beans arrive in generous handfuls you didn’t see coming.
Cover Crops (Oats + Peas, or Winter Rye + Hairy Vetch)
Why it works: When it’s too late for another “main event,” a cover crop dresses the soil in green over winter, feeding the underground life while protecting against erosion.
Best when: You’ve run out of growing season but want spring-ready soil.
Consider: Know your chosen mix’s temperament - oats die back with frost for easy spring prep, rye demands a formal ending with a crimp or cut.
More Unusual Companions
Cilantro or Dill: Fast-growing herbs that attract beneficial insects and tolerate cooler weather.
Parsnips: Slow to mature but well-suited to fertile, post-brassica soil.
What to Avoid After Brassicas (and Why)
Any Brassicas:
Broccoli, cabbage, kale, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, collards, mustard greens, turnips, radishes — all risk disease carryover.
Bed Reset & Prep
✅ Cut off plants at the root; remove debris and any yellowing leaves from the bed.
✅ Compost healthy plant material and burn any with disease.
✅ Loosen the soil gently, keeping structure intact.
✅ Spread ½–1 inch compost; re-level.
✅ Mulch if planting a fall crop; water in deeply.
Growing food is more than just growing food.
It’s partnership. A quiet rhythm shared between you, the plants, and the soil, deepening with each season.
All About Timing Cheatsheet
If it's:
Mid-Late Summer: Plant carrots, beets, or bush beans.
Early Fall: Sow oats/peas or buckwheat as a cover.
Cool climates: Tuck in garlic/onion or an overwinter cover crop.
Warm climates: Beans or a quick cucumber run, followed by a fall herb sowing.
The seed remembers the hand that sowed it.
What are Some Resources For Learning More About Seed Saving?
Books Worth Keeping on Your Shelf
Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth: A foundational classic, incredibly thorough with species-specific seed-saving techniques. Best for when you’re ready to dive deeper.
The Seed Garden: The Art and Practice of Seed Saving by Seed Savers Exchange: Beautifully laid out and beginner-accessible. Offers clear charts and growing tips for over 75 crops.
Vegetable Gardener’s Bible by Edward C. Smith: Not just about seeds, this one helps you build a thriving garden from soil to harvest, so your seed saving has something to grow in.
Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemenway: For the permaculture-inclined. Helps you see your garden as a living ecosystem — one that’s perfect for long-term seed stewardship.
Seed Sources & Swaps
Seed Savers Exchange: A nonprofit preserving heirloom seeds with a rich catalog and gardener-to-gardener swap network.
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds: Stunning catalogs and rare varieties. Great for gardeners who love color, flavor, and plant diversity.
Local Seed Libraries: Check your county extension office or library -many have seasonal swaps or borrowing programs.
Online Seed Swaps & Facebook Groups: Search “[Your State] Gardeners” or “Heirloom Seed Swap” on Facebook for regional communities.
Bethany’s Tip: Don’t feel like you need everything right away. One book, one envelope, and one seed head is enough to begin.
Go Forth & Grow...
Brassicas stand sturdy in the cool - broccoli, kale, cabbage, each with its own bold resilience.
They remind us that even in harsher seasons, life can flourish in rich, surprising forms.
Whether you filled your baskets with leaves or florets, you carried a lineage of food once prized in every old-world garden.
This brassica guide was just the beginning. Let it guide you toward lighter crops, giving the soil its chance to breathe again.
Strength spent, balance restored.
This guide was created with dirt under my fingernails, late nights, and a lot of care. No ads, no paywalls, just a simple offering for fellow growers.
If it helped you, inspired you, or made crop rotation feel just a LITTLE less mysterious (or even just if you enjoyed your ads-free time) there are two simple ways to say thanks:
Share the Love... Sow it Forward!
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Created by Bethany Archer, lifelong gardener and founder of Grow & Gather Life.