Thanks guys! The teachers are already excited from seeing the extra plants from my own apartment garden I brought to start off with. Right now, that just consist of a couple of husky cherry's, two other southern variety tomato plants, some ozark strawberries, a few honey dew and crimson sweet water melon, and some left over struggling cabbage, brussel sprouts, broccoli and buttercrest lettuce starts left over from my home depot binges. I also have about 9 cheyenne pepper plants which I have to section off for the elementary aged students. But with all of your suggestions I think I can focus it more based on the areas I have. The first shovel goes in on monday so I hope I can have pics up soon after to help describe better. There is a roughtly 10x10 old sandbox no longer used. It's against the western fence (with a few trees) with clear eastern sky, with the school building to the south. It doesn't seem as FULL SUN as some of the other areas. I also have a slight concern for the leaves & insects hiding in the trees on our neighbors side of the fence. Originally thought it would be the perfect strawberry patch, but now I'm thinking it might be my best bet at squeezing some greens out of the remainding season. The plan is to dick out the sand (its down at least 3 feet) layer some gravel (necessary?), then compost and top soil. Only thing I've every used as mulch was red landscaping mulch. Would like to try something else. I have an archway climbing structure thats currently in full sun (but movable) that I think would be great for any vining/trailing plants. I think it would be beautiful covered in butterfly attracting flowers (girls), but think it would make a nice "cave" of berries (boys & girls). There's an old plastic car that sits on the ground, large enough for maybe three kids to sit it. I want to fill it very lushly with flowers that do well in bouquets. There's a separate mini-playground for our infants and toddlers. They're play space is mainly for motor and sensory development. It's also mostly shaded. Can anything grow there? I know most herbs are full sun, or else I'd primarily plant bunches of strong scented and multi-textured herbs for smelling and touching. Are there any other plants that will grow with muted sun that are fragrant or soft/rough/hairy, etc. I also read about a "tickle" plant or something that moves when u touch it. The old playground landscape used tires to divide areas. We're digging them up and painting them to build towers for our sweet and other potatoes. I'm thinking of a container garden for cherry tomatoes. The only ones I have are red so I have to start looking for southern varieties in different colors and tastes for the children to explore. I'm also looking for a multitude of different containers. The icing buckets, old trash cans, bath tubs, sinks, fish tanks, wheel barrels. Unfortunately, the rest may end up in raised beds. Which seems like a slight bit of a hassle. The land next to the potatoes is mostly old wood mulch and dirt and I have to have it dug down and leveled anyway so it would be great to have it dug deep enough for top soil, compost and in ground planting. However, a portable classroom building will be placed there by august. So I'd only get the next couple of months worth of growing out of it. Seems like a lot of trouble for one growing season. What do you guys think? If anything, the suggestions of corn, edible flowers, colorful beans, and the amazing sounding sun flower teepee would be likely be the additional plants. I'm really excited it. If i can get this much going, the fall season will be greatly expanded. An option thats on the fence, but pretty much headed to the chopping block because of my own inexperience is a "potpourri" garden. My sister thought it would be nice if some of the plants the children had would be fragrant enough to be dried and given to their parents as bags of potpourri? Anybody know enough about that to point me in the right direction? Thanks for ALL the suggestions guys. This is a HUGE project, especially for me to have just started gardening in december. I know i need to utilize the extension office as well but I'd rather know what I could and would like to do first. Good news though, from how this turns out, a local church may want me to help them start a large vegetable garden to contribute to a neighborhood vegetable stand and food bank. Yay! More overwhelming gardening plans! lol Lefran

You can start with sowing seeds of bush beans. They're large seeds...easy to sow, fast to germinate and make beans that your toddler can eat raw or cooked. Bush beans will do great in containers but they must be kept well watered...expect that on very sunny days you'll need to add up to a gallon of water for a container the size of a five gallon bucket.

We grow seeds with our four and five year olds with Bounty paper towels folded into quarters, wet and placed in a zip lock bag with a bean seed inside where you can observe the roots when they start to grow. We tape them to the panes of the window. Remember to always plant a couple of extras with no name, then when a child's seed fails to germinate, you can replace it with a good one. In our outdoor garden we plant lemon balm, rosemary and various mints for fragrance. Bev Bos (noted preschool educator) says children live in odor-sterile environments, because of all the germicides, etc. we use to clean our homes and schools, and they need good smells. We plant lots of fennel, dill and parsley so the caterpillars will be welcome. We often take a caterpillar inside to hatch and then enjoy letting the butterly go. It makes the children much more protective of insects. BTW, when you have children make decorative objects, you are not encouraging art, but craft. While craft has its place, children should also understand that they do not have to make practical things for their art to have value. Why not have them take their art supplies outside and make pictures of their garden, or bring in some flowers for them to draw? This is one of the teachings of Reggio Emilia, an excellent preschool philosophy.

blsdgal, that's the kind of speech problem my kids had, too. My DD would simply drop the "th" in some words, so, for example, "there" became "air." Consequently, people (especially the other kids in nursery school) would misunderstand her; I felt that this had the potential to be socially damaging, and that was the impetus for getting therapy instead of waiting for it to get better on its own--by age 5, that had not happened. She also couldn't pronounce certain combinations of consonants ("magnet" became "mag-a-net," "middle" became "mit-tel"), although that wasn't as hard to understand. Those problems were easily corrected; for the "th" sound, she just had to learn to put her tongue behind her teeth a certain way and make the vibration in her tongue (not sure I'm describing this correctly; it has been a long time). Anyway, it just took some practice (games) and reinforcement (small rewards), and the problem was GONE. My DS's problems were similar. I suspect it has something to do with the shape of the mouth and teeth (they both needed orthodontics as teenagers), rather than the clarity of the speech modeled by their parents. I wouldn't worry much about the "labeling" for a speech problem. Once it has been resolved, there's no more problem; it's ancient history. It doesn't reflect on the child's intelligence or personality or upbringing, so there's no stigma. On the other hand, NOT getting it corrected can lead to frustration at being misunderstood and perhaps ridiculed by his peers. I don't think you "screwed up" at all, but I'd have the child's speech evaluated as soon as possible and then listen to the professional's recommendations on whether he'll grow out of it or need correction. BTW, I was allowed to be present in the room when my son was tested (we HAD a rotary phone and a phonograph, so recognition of those items wasn't a problem)! :-) Sue