Every gardening endeavor takes a bit of trial and error. Every wilted leaf has a lesson. Every unproductive plot yields tips for next season.

Our team rounded up some recent learnings from their gardening attempts – successful and otherwise! Scroll on for tips.

For consistent harvests:

“Succession planting! You can get pretty sophisticated about staggering maturation dates, but the simplest way to make sure you're harvesting all summer long is to space out plantings of any given vegetable by 2-4 weeks.” – Rosalie

Apartment gardening:

“Mike and I currently have a window herb garden (TFS herb seeds!). Only tip I can think of for these is to make sure they are in a sunny window spot and that they are in pots with drainage holes to make sure they aren't over-watered! We love our Genovese Basil for fun summer cocktails.” – Julia

Productive planting:

“Companion planting is also helpful. Certain vegetables like being grown near each other in gardens (tomatoes, basil, peppers | corn, beans, cucumbers, peas | spinach, strawberries), and planting friends with friends can help increase yield, decrease disease, and limit pests!” – Caitlin

For low light:

“I don’t get a ton of direct light each day due to a huge tree that shades my yard. I have the best luck with leafy greens and herbs. Arugula is my favorite. I did try peas this year to see what would happen and they’re already growing!” – Sierra

Proper spacing:

“I have a shared garden with my neighbors and we've dedicated a section this year to different varieties of peppers! It's my first time planting them but I've learned how important it is to space peppers more than 12 inches apart so they have the proper room to grow. Needless to say with all of the varieties, we have quite a large pepper garden!” – Olivia