Perhaps you could plant all edible things, flowers, herbs and easy vegetables. Try Nasturiums (flowers are edible), mint (grows easily and spreads rampantly),basil, beans, green onions, Kiwi vine, even grapes. If you try the mint you could plant different varieties such as chocolate mint, apple mint, lemon mint, orange mint, etc. A good sourse for herb plants is www.richters.com (it is a Canadian site, but they may be able to ship to US). It would give you an idea of things to try though. Hope this helps. Jules

Sharon Lovejoy books, Library books. Little Projects out of magazines, websites on gardening with Kids.

Do most of the prep work yourself. Don't go nuts on details.
Plan on them messing things up, let them play with the worms and Pillbugs.

Sometimes my guy just plays with Lego, or Power Rangers on a towel while I'm out there.
(once he took pruners and had a great time removing EVERY Flower from a 2 foot round bush...@ first I freaked, then I let him. He was 4. At least he was out there with me...)

He's 6 now. Sometimes he's excited, sometimes he refuses to go out.
Have Fun..........Good Luck AMS

When my daughter was small one of the things she loved most was a teepee made from pole beans. I planted scarlet runner beans and a few others, some nastursums for extra color. She would hide in there and munch of the beans hanging down. Two big sunflowers marked the door. When she got older and wasn't likely to eat them I added morning glories.

If I could cut poles big enough and had the space she would still hide in one at nine years old.

I still make sure I have plenty of black eyed susans and daisys for her to pick. Things that will bloom again when you pick them. She now helps me dab pollen on daylilies and will pull weeds for at least a little while. I always pick of a few fairly indestructable plants for her to plant in a bed she calls hers. My daylilies and iris have sort of spread into it but I was good and kept them purple just like she wanted.
When she started reading I would often get duplicate catalogs and we would sit together and pick out flowers and veggies we would each like to try. The gaudy and amazing statured things still attract her. We would each circle things and then compare notes. Still do.

In the front of their elementary school is a perennial border of pass along plants. She often freaks a teacher out by giving the latin name of something and telling the teacher it's habits and soil preferences.
I think I'm safe in assuming she will always garden. Considering all the things kids could be getting into it's not a bad thing at all.

Thanks for all of the info. I planted yesterday and today, and they were a big help. My son (3) did all of the watering and my daughter (6) did all the supervising. They both are real excited about the flowers and look forward to watching everything grow.