Greeting from another Michigan wintersower! I have some asters, not sure what kind though, they were snatched from some-one elses flowerbed(with permission).Drk purple and about two ft high. How about some rugosa roses and grape hyacinths?? Echinacea would be good too, the kids might not see the flowers but could watch the birds that eat the seed. I have all those seed. You might also try perennial sweet pea if you've got the room-mine are still around but I don't have any seed right now. Also try wild violets-I have plants but no seed. -B

I work for a non-profit and part of my job is fundraising, including grant writing. Your best bet is always to start locally. Local Lowe's or Home Depot stores may be able to help with donated supplies. Service organizations such as the Lions, ELKs, VFW, etc. are a good source for donations in the $500 to $1000 range. Check with your local Community Foundation, they may be able to fund the whole project. Good luck, Carolyn

Jean - I hope you meant the 25th (the Wake Forest market is only on Saturdays). Lets aim for Saturday Sept 1st. This next weekend is a big grilling festival at the market and I need to haul as many sellable plants as possible to make up for the lackluster sales these past couple of hot and dry marketdays. I will also go through all my various stashes of plants to find more goodies by Fall Swap. And next spring I should have even more after sowing seeds all winter. I have Rue. But the caterpillars on it are eating it down to the nub so I doubt I will get seeds. I plan on finding some seed somewhere and growing a bunch of it, so at some point I will have some available. I do have some parsley potted up and some Agastache (Hyssop). If you find any of the annual butterfly weed (Asclepias currasavica)(sp?), I have been able to over winter the roots and got bigger plants the next spring. I simply dig them up after first frost and pot them up and store them out of the way. They are easy from seed also. Pentas are a great nectar plant and they are easy from cuttings but they won't overwinter outside. Good luck

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