I have had really good luck with peaches and cream corn. It is a bi color variety that is super sweet. I get my seeds from WalMart.

4 x 4 should be just fine, and this is actually preferable to plant in a block because it pollinates better that way. I normally plant mine in a 4x8 bed and get about 40 to 50 ears per planting. I plant my seeds about 10 inches apart, but you are supposed to plant 12 inches apart.

Here are some corn posts from my blog
http://georgiahomegarden.blogspot.com/search/label/Corn

Here is a link that might be useful: Corn Links

haha, the fact that theres kids WANTING to grow stuff makes me happy. that said

im told celery is tough for seasoned gardeners. im not saying dont try it, im just saying ive heard its tough. more will chime in here im certain( i dont grow it as i dont care for it, too little payoff)

beans are awesome for kids. they grow easily, they take abuse wonderfully, and they provide the "payoff" edibles

corn im on the fence. its one of the easiest things ive ever grown, that said, its one of the hardest to grow to fruition. i grew corn in a 4x6 area, and it grew wonderfully, but between rats, less than stellar pollination, etc, i didnt get much out of it.

answers to the original questions in my opinion, id give him the 4x4, larger if you can, grow an easier readily available hybrid (silver queen? silver princess?), and have fun. at the end of the day if he gets one half of an ear of corn that he can eat, it may be worth a million ears later.

as far as broccoli goes, id do both. if its available as a plant pick it up, and id plant seeds

i think the big part(especially for a kid) is watching it start as a seed and seeing it grow and become something to eat.

maybe set them both up together with a 3 sisters garden, and they can learn a little culture and heritage along with a huge dose of "how it all works together"

good luck. i remember when mine thought growing stuff was cool. now its texting and whatever...

My Father was the son of a farmer & a farmer, before he married my mother.
I can not remember a time when he did not farm.
My earliest memory of my father is him coming in out of the field at dark.
But the fondest memory was when he let me hoe some green bush beans.
I have gardened/farmed for over40 years & it is in the garden I feel closes to my Dad, who past ten years ago.
3 sisters are great, I planted the corn 6 inches apart in 4 rows of a raised bed. Made at least one ear per plant.
The beans did better then the squash.
If you have room plant some small cut flowers on the edge of the garden.
Children love to pick flower for Mom, at least I did.

Don't worry about the height of the corn, go for a variety that grows well locally, and tastes good. Do you have any friends who could recommend something reliable (not GM)? If not, Golden Bantam would probably do fine. It's widely available, has been around for a long time, has good flavor, and is usually considered reliable.

Remember that corn is a nutrient hog, worse than practically anything else. Watch the leaf color: deep, bright green is good, pale green means they need feeding.

Birds are notorious for pulling up the sprouting corn (beans, too). The most reliable way is to push/pound some stakes into the corners of the planted area and cover the area with bird neting, keeping it raised off the surface, and hold the edges down with rocks, bricks or 2x4s. Once the plants are growing well (about 6" tall), you can take the netting off.

A 4x4' block is pretty small. Is 8x8' do-able?

Check your local planting dates. Your local Cooperative Extension Service should know. Ask if now is too late for sowing broccoli. (Remember, you can plant for fall crops, too.)

If you're only growing a few broccoli plants, just buy the plants, the smaller the better, or they might be too rootbound to grow well.

sue

Here is a link that might be useful: Virginia Cooperative Extension Service offices

Thank you for the great tips! I love the idea of a 3 sisters garden if I can find a spot that will work for both corn and squash. I have some surprise beans for them to plant -- purple beans. :) (I told them they're not green but that they'll have to wait and see the color -- fun!) I can't quite imagine how you can plant a dense block of corn and beans together (enough to get a decent corn harvest) and not shade the beans and also still be able to reach the beans to pick them, but I'll have to go do some reading. Also, how do you feed the corn enough without overfertilizing the beans? I like that the 3 sisters plan would give my son something to pick during the summer before the corn is ready -- should help keep up his interest in it.

We'll make sure to protect the corn from birds -- didn't know that was an issue with corn. Also, we'll plant broccoli seeds and buy some plants too, as suggested, and will definitely include some flowers. I want to make sure they get a payoff this year, since last year we planted too late and their plots didn't do well.

PURPLE BEANS ARE AWESOME. thats pretty much all i grow in the bush bean variety. (i joke with the wife that theyre "wife proof"- they turn green when cooked) not sure if theres purple pole bean variety...

as far as feeding the corn. some feed prior to planting, and maybe once more before flowering. not sure if you can over fertilize beans. someone in the know will be able to chime in. last year i turned in all my compost before planting, then at about 3-4 ft i watered with water soluble fertilizer. this year im thinking i may use the "organic" lawn fertilizer i picked up at the bargain store this winter and put it down then compost tea/alfalfa at 3-4 ft. i dont know well see.

ideally though the beans assist in the feeding of the corn. at least thats the theory, and it worked, so maybe.

sunflowers are cool. and you can eat them, make bird feeders, whatever.

if youve got room you could do small pumpkins with the 3 sisters, and you could have pumpkins for halloween.

Purple beans, blue corn, white pumpkins. Mix it up a bit.

For kids, I would definitely recommend a variety of indian corn. I'll bet that they have never seen anything but the traditional yellow corn that comes out of cans or from the supermarket, so this will be a great opportunity to show them that there's a whole lot more out there in the big open world than they've seen before.

You can find corn in blue, black, brown, red, pink, and sometimes all of the above on a single ear.

Well, if we're talking colors here, last year I grew Burpee's Ruby Queen corn and liked it quite well. It's easy to tell when it is ripening because the red color develops more as it gets close to picking time. Though if it gets all red all the way to the top it has started towards tough and starchy. And unlike the purple beans it retains some of it's color when cooked. Cheers, sounds like a fun project!

I wouldn't recommend trying 3 sisters with most sweet corn varieties--they are too short and will be mauled by the pole beans. Indian corn would be better for that; most Indian corn tends to be taller, longer season. However, if you still want sweet corn but with a splash of color you can try Ruby Queen or Indian Summer (but don't plant pole beans among these).

Another thing you can do with the beans (whether pole or bush) is to mix green, purple and wax (yellow) varieties. An example bush variety mix: Contender, Purple Queen, Cherokee. And for pole beans: Blue Lake, Purple King, Kentucky Wonder Wax. Some seed companies actually sell 3-color bean selections.

Even with lima beans you can play with color. Though in the fresh green edible stage all varieties are green, the dry seeds of some variates are colorful. Jackson Wonder (bush) and Christmas (pole) are examples.

Not to be a wet blanket but corn is a Coon and Deer magnet....Be sure your child knows that up front.

I can heartily recommend Louisiana Purple Pole Beans. They are easy, productive, beautiful, and delicious. Southern Exposure carries them.

For kids, there's a lot to be said for radishes. I've done a lot of work with at-risk teens and gardening; for many of them, planting a bed of radishes is one of the most self-affirming actions they have ever taken. It is a process that almost always ends in success, can be carried through from start to finish in a reasonable amount of time, and can be used to teach an enormous number of lessons. The other great satisfier for kids new to gardening is potatoes. The excitement of a good harvest is enormously gratifying.

I mentioned "Indian Summer" corn earlier. I grew it a few years ago, but it seems to have been discontinued.

You know there is always popcorn. It's small, colorful and fun to eat. I've seen it grown in a half barrel and did well.

Love the idea of colored corn -- I'll try to find Ruby Queen. I have both pole and bush beans that are purple (Royal Burgundy and Purple Queen bush and Purple Podded Pole). Also have a few Golden Wax beans, plus some Dragon Tongue that I plan to grow a bunch of.

After some more reading, it looks like we'll have the best chance if we keep the corn, beans and squash separate.

I warned the kid that the corn attracts animals. We're putting up a fence. Hope the corn doesn't draw in creatures that destroy the whole garden ...

We're trying potatoes too this year for the first time -- we're all looking forward to that. Somehow, I managed to be the rare person who fails with radishes, at least last year, lol. Long skinny root was all I got from both radishes and carrots. We were able to grow them easily before that at our previous house around the corner -- daughter loved them and wants to grow some. We'll try again, but maybe in containers? Tips are welcome for better success with radishes in the ground. I know I really need to send some soil out for testing.

Popcorn sounds like fun too! Might try that as well. Thanks.

It's officially autumn here tomorrow and my four sisters (giant sunflowers is the fourth) are doing well, but I think you might be sensible to avoid the sisters for now: the system's really designed for growing storage crops, allowing them to mature and dry in place: winter squash, dried beans and dent/flour corn. Not very kid-friendly food! Snap beans and sweetcorn need to be harvested often and it would be hard not tho wreck the plants.
Popcorn's a great kid plant. Strawberry popcorn can be eaten fresh too and it's a cool colour. Maybe they could try a modified three sisters: popcorn, sunflowers and a winter squash like 'Jack be little', that should be ready for halloween, if that's your kind of thing.
Corn HAS to be planted in a block and a bonus of popcorn is it can be planted close. It needs an enormous amount of nitrogen to do well, apparently people used to bury fish carcasses under the mounds. I'm too wimpy! I grew leguminous winter cover-crops, chopped them down and smothered them with seaweed and lawn clippings, let that break down and planted the sisters. I've foliar-fed it a couple of times, chucked on more grass clippings and aged sheep poo. Not something I'd do in a large space, but the corn (Navajo black) has between 3 and 5 cobs each. It feels like the Little shop of horrors out there sometimes: "feed me, Seymour". Beans wildly clutching everything, corn in all directions, every morning I have to wrestle the pumpkins off the paths...

If you're doing potatoes, you should get purple ones there as well and have a whole theme garden. I'm growing some Andirondack Blue potatoes this year. They're deep purple when raw, but if you boil or bake them they turn a dark sky blue. Picked up a bag of seed potatoes for them at Lowes (although I've seen them at most of the big box stores now).

Also, if you go to Walmart right now, they are carrying something new for potatoes this year. Actual purpose made potato growing bags.

Heavy duty tarp plastic bags with eyelet drainage holes in the bottom, and a velcro flap at the bottom. Roll it down like a pants cuff, fill with dirt, put your potatoes in, and let 'em grow. As they get bigger, you just unroll the bag and add more dirt. End of the season, you open the velcro flap at the bottom and can grab the potatoes easily without having to dump the whole thing out.

Feijoas, yes, that was what I had read -- it's designed for storage crops. Your description made me laugh. The plan for his plot, right now, is Ruby Queen corn with maybe some Silver Queen for pollination assistance, some purple bush beans in front of the corn, and a pumpkin plant at the edge with room to sprawl.

Edymnion, I ordered some blue potatoes. :) Along with some regular varieties. That potato bag sounds cool, but we have a plot designated for them.