Vegetables · Temperate
Fennel
Apiaceae
At a glance
- Plant spacing
- 30 cm
- USDA zones
- 4a–10a
- Frost-sensitive
- yes
- Growth duration
- 14 weeks
Which beds suit?
- Sun (prefers)
- full sunAlso okay:partial shade
- Soil (prefers)
- loamyAlso okay:sandyraised-bed mix
- Drainage (prefers)
- normalAlso okay:very free-draining
Seed & start
Pre-culture recommended
Start indoors / cold frame first, transplant into the raised bed later.
Stachi's tip
Bulb fennel wants a long cool season — sow July, harvest October/November. In heat it bolts instantly. Tricky for beginners, but when it works: anise-sweet and unique.
The plant's year: sowing, transplanting, harvest
Sowing
Transplanting
Harvest
Good neighbours
No fixed companion partners — easy to mix.
Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
Avoid these neighbours
Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
Good pre-cultures
Stachi has no specific pre-cultures recorded.
What comes after Fennel?
When the bed frees up, the season is usually not over. We worked out what still fits afterwards — with time windows and reasons.
See follow-on crops for Fennel →Sources
- LLM-Baseline+gpt-5-review
- LLM-Baseline-Intercrop
- LLM-Baseline-2026-05-09 yieldKg
- LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 family-zehrer
- LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 sun-soil-drainage
- LWG Bayern (Bayerische Gartenakademie) – Merkblatt 2172 Knollenfenchel (https://www.lwg.bayern.de/mam/cms06/gartenakademie/dateien/2172-2016.pdf)
- LWG Bayern (Bayerische Gartenakademie) – Infoschrift Gemüsearten zur Nachkultur 2102 (https://www.lwg.bayern.de/gartenakademie/gartendokumente/infoschriften/148345/index.php)
- Sativa Rheinau – Kulturblatt Fenchel (https://www.sativa-rheinau.ch/hausgarten/tipps/kulturblaetter/fenchel.html)
Where these figures come from
- Timing
- Horticulturally established — consistent across the cited standard works.
- Spacing
- Horticulturally established — consistent across the cited standard works.
- Companion planting
- Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
- Crop rotation
- Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
- Yield
- Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
Sources: LLM-Baseline+gpt-5-review · LLM-Baseline-Intercrop · LLM-Baseline-2026-05-09 yieldKg · LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 family-zehrer · LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 sun-soil-drainage · LWG Bayern (Bayerische Gartenakademie) – Merkblatt 2172 Knollenfenchel (https://www.lwg.bayern.de/mam/cms06/gartenakademie/dateien/2172-2016.pdf) · LWG Bayern (Bayerische Gartenakademie) – Infoschrift Gemüsearten zur Nachkultur 2102 (https://www.lwg.bayern.de/gartenakademie/gartendokumente/infoschriften/148345/index.php) · Sativa Rheinau – Kulturblatt Fenchel (https://www.sativa-rheinau.ch/hausgarten/tipps/kulturblaetter/fenchel.html)
Articles about this plant
Why I only tidy up half my raised bed in October
Mr Zimmermann cut his entire raised bed down to the ground in one afternoon — stalks, seed heads, leaves, all gone. I should have warned him beforehand: not everything, only half. Here's what should stay standing and what really needs to go.
The garden in July: what to sow now — and what's already on the plate
July is the loudest time in the raised bed: the first courgettes, cucumbers and tomatoes, and at the same time your last chance to sow for autumn. What still goes in now, what comes out, and the one trick that keeps freed-up gaps from sitting empty.
Products mentioned in this post
- Plantura organic tomato seed set (10 varieties)Open-pollinated, good germination — robust for raised beds.
- Organic tomato seed set, 14 varieties
- Organic heirloom tomato seed set (Demeter, 12 varieties)
- Organic vegetable seed set, 10 varietiesCucumber, tomato, beetroot, broccoli, carrot, chard & more.