What To Plant
After Garlic

The Best Crops To Plant After Garlic

(The Quick Answer)

Garlic is a light feeder, so the soil is still well-stocked, and it doesn’t leave behind the pest and disease baggage of heavier feeders.

This makes it a welcoming place for tomatoes, peppers, beans, brassicas, or even a lush summer cover crop if the season is slipping away.

Avoid: Other alliums (onions, leeks, shallots). They share soil-borne diseases like white rot that linger far longer than you’d want.

Why These Work

Garlic’s quiet, months-long residency in the bed leaves it relatively undisturbed and modestly used.

It naturally repels certain pests, and its long growing season ends just when summer’s warmth is peaking, opening a perfect window for heavy feeders or quick maturing crops.

Following with a different plant family breaks any potential disease cycles and makes the most of the season left.

Not sure which crop is right for following after your garlic?

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 Garlic

(The Detailed Answers)

Beans (or Peas in cool shoulder seasons)

Why it works: Legumes are the soil’s quiet philanthropists, pulling nitrogen from thin air and tucking it back into the ground. They break the nightshade disease cycle and leave the soil richer than they found it.

Best when: You’ve got 50–60 frost-free days left, and the soil drains well enough for quick root establishment.

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.

Tomatoes (or Peppers in warm climates)

Why it works: Heavy feeders thrive in the nutrient-rich soil left behind; the allium family shares few diseases with nightshades.

Best when: Garlic is harvested in early to mid-summer, giving tomatoes/peppers enough time to set fruit.

Consider: Choose determinate tomato varieties for shorter seasons; give peppers the warmest, sunniest bed.

Fall Brassicas (Broccoli, Cabbage, Kale)

Why it works: Brassicas drink deeply from the fertile soil left behind, and they’re happy to race the shortening days.

Best when: You can transplant starts 6–10 weeks before frost; they’re cool-weather creatures who sweeten with a touch of chill.

Consider: Netting will deter the cabbage moth’s children; steady water keeps them tender.

Cover Crops (Buckwheat, Oats + Peas)

Why it works: If there’s no time for a full crop, these protect the soil, add biomass, and prepare it for the following season.

Best when: It’s too late for fruiting or brassica crops, but warm enough for a quick-growing green cover.

Consider: Buckwheat flowers fast and draws pollinators; oats and peas fix nitrogen and smother weeds.

More Unusual Companions

Cucumbers: Thrive in the fertile, pest-clean soil after garlic; choose quick maturing varieties for shorter seasons.

Fennel: Will bolt in summer heat but does beautifully from midsummer sowings in cooler zones.

What to Avoid After Garlic (and Why)

Other Long-Season Alliums:

They tie up the bed for too long and don’t break disease cycles.

Onions,
Leeks & Shallots:

They share the same family tree and with it, the same disease baggage and pest invitations.

Bed Reset & Prep

✅ Lift garlic carefully; 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 Summer: Plant tomatoes, peppers, beans, or cucumbers.

Early Fall: Sow fall brassicas or a cover crop oats/peas or rye/vetch and close the curtain for winter.

Cool climates: Go for brassicas or overwintering cover crops.

Warm climates: Follow with heat-loving fruiting crops, then a late brassica run.

The seed remembers the hand that sowed it.

Go Forth & Grow...

Garlic is the quiet keeper of time, buried through the long dark, waiting patiently to rise again.

It reminds us that unseen work has value, and that slowness can be strength.

Whether you pulled one braid or many, each bulb is proof that waiting yields reward.

This garlic guide was just the beginning. Let it lead you to the crops that thrive after its watch is finished, so the bed may begin its next story.

Harvest, rest, renew.

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!

Share it with someone who might be interested in it.

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Created by Bethany Archer, lifelong gardener and founder of Grow & Gather Life.