I wanted to have a kids garden for my little boy and bought into the "land of giants" package deal from Shumway. It came with the following seeds:

Longfellow Cucumber
Bushel Gourd
Bucklunch Sugar Beet
Mr. Big Pea
Dills Atlantic Giant Pumpkin
German Giant Radish (Parat)
Giant Grey Stripe Sunflower
Cobb (Kolb) Gem Watermelon

I'm not really concerned with achieving any kind of record breaking size but just thought larger-than-average would be fun for my toddler.

That being said, I have 8 inch tall raised beds and am wondering if ANY of these can actually be grown there?? The beds are on top of grass- I was just planning on putting in a bunch of unshredded leaves and/or carboard before I filled them but I suppose I could try and remove the grass to allow things to root deeper???

I have about 25 sq feet which I'm sure is too small for everything but I'd love to have at least a few that would successfully grow and be "visually interesting" for a 2 year old. Maybe the gourds and peas? Perhaps a watermelon or a pumpkin?

There aren't very many sunny spots on my property (outside of the area where I'm setting up the beds) but I could maybe put something along one side of the house.

I'm new to the forum so please forgive any missteps and thanks so much for your insight!