Succession Planting

• Planting a succession of crops in your vegetable garden helps you get bigger yields from a small space. Because cabbage and broccoli have similar needs, they are ideal candidates for succession planting. Both are cool-season vegetables, so you can plant cabbage in early spring and broccoli in mid- to late summer for a fall harvest. When planted late in the season, broccoli can produce until Thanksgiving or Christmas, depending upon the climate in your area.
  
  

Rotating Crops

• Broccoli and cabbage are members of the Brassica genus or cole crops, along with cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, mustard, turnips, radish, rutabaga and collards. Oriental vegetables such as raab, pak choi and kohlrabi, are also brassicas. In most cases, you won't have a problem growing cabbage and broccoli in the same space within the same season, but if your cabbage is bothered by insects and diseases, plant your fall broccoli in a different location. Next year, plant cole crops in a different part of the garden to prevent insects and diseases from building up.
  
  

Cabbage

• Plant cabbage a couple of weeks before your last expected frost date. If you start your own plants from seeds, start them indoors in early spring or four to six weeks before your last expected frost date. Harvest cabbage when the heads are firm and the appropriate size for the variety you have planted. You can leave cabbage in the garden for an additional two weeks for fresh harvest as you need it, but leave yourself plenty of time to plant the broccoli.
  
  

Broccoli

• Broccoli is a heavy feeder, so you need to apply a couple of inches of compost or a balanced fertilizer between your cabbage and broccoli crops. After harvesting the cabbage, prepare the soil for the broccoli by turning it and then work the fertilizer into the soil. Start broccoli seeds indoors about four weeks before you plan to transplant them outdoors. Harvest broccoli while the heads are tight and before the yellow flowers begin to open. After the main harvest, many varieties produce small lateral heads throughout fall and sometimes into winter.