Well, of course, I'm the butterfly gardener on the forum, and my granddaughter is now 5 years old. She and mom live with me. She has been helping me butterfly garden for 2 years now, since she was 3. I wouldn't advise some of the plants because some of them are poisonous. However, he would probably love to see parsley worms on parsley or fennel, and they are both easy to grow. The caterpillars metamorph into the beautiful black swallowtail butterflies. We hand-raised them. If you want to know more, let me know. But, my granddaughter can tell everybody the entire life process of a butterfly now! She likes salad, so we grew mesclun mix for her. We also raised the tomato hornworms that we found on the tomato plants - they are beautiful hummingbird moths. Tomato foliage is poisonous, so be careful. I taught my granddaughter that we always wash our hands after feeding the caterpillars, or you can just simply watch them grow on the plants. Grow some snapdragons (it may be a bit late to find them now), and show him how the "snap". The snapdragons are also a host plant for the beautiful Buckeye butterflies. I grew a contorted mulberry in the backyard, and now it is perfect for her to climb in. She calls it her tree. We also are growing pawpaw trees. Of course, she thinks they are named after her grandpa, whom she calls pawpaw. She loves to dig in the yard, and I have to be careful of the "pitfalls" now of gardening with a young one. But, she loves flowers and weeds, dirt and mud, watering anything but the plants, and roly-polys. She has a bug container now that she puts some of the bugs she finds in there. She loves ladybugs, too. I teach her to appreciate the insects in nature and we watch them grow. She would rather be outside that indoors any day. And she will dig up weeds and transplant them all over the yard. Actually, some of them have taken root, and it pleases her to no end. I buy some plants for her to pot up. The other day she potted up catnip for our cats. She loved that because right after she potted it up, George (our cat) came over and started chewing on a leaf! Herbs are fun, too, because kids are tactile and have a very good sense of smell. We grow lavendar, fennel, parsley, hyssop, mint, lemon balm, and lots of "smell good" plants. Nasturtiums are edible plants that you can put the flowers in a salad. He might really like that. If he wants to plant a few, they are harmless for him. I hope you have a great time on your project with your son, and welcome to the forum! Susan

I have a 2 1/2 year-old son and we also struggle with working in the yard at times. IT is better this year here are some things I have done... Let them water your containers or play with water. Drexler now tells me the flowers are crying because they are thirsty. I then give him the hose and let him have at it...last night he was right. One of my pansies was thirsty! Get excited about things. Right now EVERY DAY when I get home from work my son asks to go pick the strawberries. We go out and usually a new one is ripe (can't wait a few more weeks). He is still working on not picking the green ones, but he'll learn. Teach them what is yummy. Last year we planted carrots in a container and he would go out and pick a carrot out, wipe it off and eat it. Clean soil, no chemicals and hey he was eating carrots. Teach them to love flowers. How does it smell? How does it taste. Have them help you pick out what ones to pick. Drexler and I will do this together, go into the house and put them in vases and then talk about how pretty they are. I have a small vase by my bed that he empties out every day and replaces the water in...and then the flowers. A bit of a pain, but he is learning to appreciate my yard. Don't freak when they step on a plant, but do teach them to be nice to your plants. I have a large yard and Drex has hurt some of my plants, but we talk about how to treat them. Teach them to watch for bugs and to be interested in them. Ants can keep a kid busy for at least fifteen minutes. Tell yourself you will most likely not get a lot accomplished with your helpers so when you do accomplish something it feels good. Make them an area that is all theirs.

This is all the shrub that grew back the last couple of years. I had it hand cut down as far I could, but keeps coming back. Right side of the yard. We still want to leave some there so we have privacy. The shrub had taken the yard over to the white stick. The family (kids of the lady) didn’t do anything in the 50 years she lived in the house. they let their mom live in this house where the windows where so broken they couldn’t be closed. They stayed open about 5 inches even in winter. To cover the issue the children (already in the 40’s we met them at closing) put plastic flowers in front of the window. I would be ashamed letting my mom live in such conditions. Anyways back to the yard ... here is my hubby taking such a crabby shrub out of the ground where I started my Hosta bed. Stones are for a patio we are going to lay this summer :-) Here is a shot of my “woodland” Hosta garden. (Not macht erfinderisch:-)

You're lucky to have a blank slate to start from, so there are lots of options. I agree about going to a local plant nursery (not home depot, lowe's, etc.) and talk with them for a while about your goals for landscaping as well as the conditions (shade, full sun, desired water requirements, etc.). Even if they are not familiar with full landscape design they can help with plants that complement each other. I love the circular pavers, but they don't make sense there so I'd remove them. If the porch railing is strong enough you could add a hanging flower box to it to hide the opening. If you're able to I'd give your planter areas some curve when you update them. Hard to tell if you'll be able to from this angle.