
Herbs · Cool
Garden cress
Brassicaceae
At a glance
- Plant spacing
- 5 cm
- USDA zones
- 3a–10b
- Frost-sensitive
- no
- Growth duration
- 3 weeks
Which beds suit?
- Sun (prefers)
- partial shadeAlso okay:full sunshade
- Soil (prefers)
- loamyAlso okay:raised-bed mixsandy
- Drainage (prefers)
- normalAlso okay:very free-draining
Seed & start
Direct sow
Sow directly into the bed — no pre-culture needed.
Stachi's tip
Garden cress is the fastest harvest there is: 3 weeks from seed to butter-bread topping. Sow a few rows every 2 weeks for continuous peppery cress. Kids love the speed; the perfect first bed for young gardeners.
The plant's year: sowing, transplanting, harvest
Sowing
Harvest
Good neighbours
Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
Avoid these neighbours
No known conflicts.
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 Garden cress?
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 Garden cress →Sources
- LLM-Baseline-2026-05-27 Phase 7 expansion
- LWG Bayern (Bayerische Gartenakademie) – Kräuter zum Frischverzehr (https://www.lwg.bayern.de/gartenakademie/gartendokumente/infoschriften/157754/index.php)
- Bingenheimer Saatgut – Grüne-Sosse-Kräuter anbauen (https://blog.bingenheimersaatgut.de/kraeuter-fuer-gruene-sosse-anbauen)
Where these figures come from
- Timing
- Horticulturally established — consistent across the cited standard works.
- Spacing
- Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
- 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-2026-05-27 Phase 7 expansion · LWG Bayern (Bayerische Gartenakademie) – Kräuter zum Frischverzehr (https://www.lwg.bayern.de/gartenakademie/gartendokumente/infoschriften/157754/index.php) · Bingenheimer Saatgut – Grüne-Sosse-Kräuter anbauen (https://blog.bingenheimersaatgut.de/kraeuter-fuer-gruene-sosse-anbauen)
Related plants
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.