Lots of good advice already. Quick crops, easy to pick and eat. Nothing that might look edible but is bad for you. Hope you get a few great helpers but set things up initially so you can maintain whatever you plant yourself. It must be kept neat, unlike some home gardens. Like luke_oh, I've had people who expressed a willingness to help but left after a short time. Frustrating....so start small. Focus on early spring crops and flowers (bulbs) and late summer plantings for fall harvest if you plan to primarily have classrooms visit the garden. I work part time at a school nature center/agriscience center. We have a garden area that we use for educational programming with elementary age students. Mostly, we try to plant the area in a way that is fun and "pretty" to lure the garden shy to to take a look....and get educated at the same time :) Several well planned signs can help with the education part. The attached photos show a few things we have tried. Herb wheels....herbs planted in among the spokes of a wheel from old farm machinery...ties in with our agriscience/farm theme and makes for some tasty cooking. A chef came and helped 2 classroom harvest, wash, chop (they loved using real knives), and cook a vegetable soup to eat. The herbs really added to the taste. Sunflower house.....found out later there is a children's book with that title that is very fun to read aloud with kids while sitting with giant sunflowers arching overhead. A double row of sunflowers screens the hideaway well. It gives you a chance to use some short varieties in the outer row that will bloom at kid height while still keeping the mammoths that are so awesome high above. Life cycle garden.....let various plants grow past normal harvest time and flower and produce seed. Lettuce and radishes are fun ones to do. Early plantings will produce seed in one season unlike some biennials like beets, carrots, and turnips. We have had kids harvest the radish seeds and plant the next crop with them. It's fun to see where the seeds come from and realize you don't always HAVE to buy them....although that is often easier and lessens the chance of crossed seeds. This garden was difficult to keep looking neat and pretty, but it is a favorite of mine. We tried for successive plantings to show several stages in the plant's growth. Barn and barnyard theme garden....ties in with our agriscience emphasis done by older students in a different area. It is fun to try to come up with plant names that have a tie in with the farm theme, ie. hen and chicks, eggplant, lamb's ear. We picked up a few inexpensive garage sale/thrift store items to enhance the animal name themes and decorate the planting. I've seen other gardens that have different themes they focus on......ie, outer space with cosmos, moon and stars watermelon.....you get the idea....maybe have children join in searching seed catalogs for cool names that would tie in with the theme....Oh, no, you might create an addict who spends inordinate amounts of time reading catalogs like I do! ABC garden...26 small areas each planted with things that start with each of the letters of the alphabet....makes for an interesting and creative exercise just to come up with the plant list....so far we are stuck with Xolhp for "X"....Phlox spelled backwards....a favorite of the dyslexic. Variety names and even letters within the plant names are sometimes used...ie table Queen bush squash for "Q". I've heard of people trying to do the ABC theme with only tomato varieties or pepper varieties or flowers. (Anyone have Quinoa, Xena lettuce or Xananthemum seed they would care to trade or share?) Pizza garden.....ingredients for pizzas....we had a sign up for awhile suggesting they hike over to the barn after their garden visit to see the pigs...growing pepperoni and ham for pizza :) I've seen salsa themed gardens and spaghetti themed ones, too. Just pick a kid favorite. Local farm commodities.....grow a small area with a crop that is grown by farmers in your area. What drives the farm economy in your state? Sorry this post is so long but maybe our experiences and photos will stir some more ideas for what would work in your area. I hope your garden does well and I hope many children come to see it and learn from it. It is amazing to see and hear how little many children and their parents know about where their food comes from. Time in your garden can give them knowledge to make good food choices now and later in life and can be alot of fun, too. Here is a link that might be useful: School garden 2009

Probably the easiest to find milkweed seeds are common (A. syriaca), swamp (A. incarnata), butterflyweed (A. tuberosa), and tropical (A. curassavica). The tropical is not native or hardy up north and grown as an annual, but it is readily available and easy to grow. I'm sure if you posted on the seed exchange that you were looking for a large amount of milkweed seed you would get several offers for postage only or maybe even free since it is for a school project. Gardeners are pretty generous I have found especially if you are teaching kids to get involved with nature. Be sure to educate the kids and any plant recipients about the nature of milkweed and that the "milk" inside is an irritant that can cause eye damage if not handled properly. Some varieties like the common milkweed can exude lots of milk when cut while others like butterfly weed are much less drippy. The common is an excellent food source as it gets tall with quite large leaves and spreads a lot, but it may not be wanted in small gardens due to the aggressive nature. It is better for wilder areas. Swamp milkweed is smaller and less aggressive and likes moister soil obviously. Butterfly weed is even smaller and bushier and tolerates dry soil and has a large taproot to seek out moisture. I have had cats on all these kinds although the butterfly weed is less used when other juicier types are available. The butterfly weed is popular when first planted when the leaves are young and tender. In the pic below you can see I had my very first cats on tiny freshly planted seedlings of butterfly weed that I was shocked they even found. I agree with KC that you could try other butterfly host and nectar plants as well for some variety. Hosts for black swallowtails are readily available too. That butterfly life cycle book is excellent. While it doesn't cover all the butterflies it covers most of the common ones with great pictures that are very kid friendly. Most of the plants are easy to start using the wintersowing method. And easy option would be to sow seeds in extra large plastic drink cups, quart size yogurt tubs, or similar containers. The open tops make them easy to sow in, transport, gift, and plant out from. Below is a link the wintersowing FAQ if you aren't familiar with it. Here is a link that might be useful: Wintersowing FAQ

Dantastic, You mentioned one of the most valid concerns/issues. There is a roof cricket between the gables and I am still revising how to simplify that area. Mark/ILoveRed: I worked on a simplification of the roof a while ago and that option modifies a bit the back gable: I got rid of the Dutch hip (above the screen porch) and detailed the gable similar to the garage gable. I my opinion, it looks better and cleaner - but that might change again if I change the roof.

For a relatively small windowless room, white/almond/beige countertop (habitat ReStore?) and walls painted light greenish-blue for airy feeling would look great. Maybe paint backslash area only with accent color. I think fluorescent lighting makes everybody look weird so I'd have daylight 3500K+ bulbs in floor lamp and hanging fixtures if possible. (consignment/Goodwill?) and paint bulletin board frames the accent color. Have fun!