Need Planting Ideas for Eight-Year-Olds

[JenniferJJ]

I have a little Brownie troop (only five girls). We are going to plant seeds next week as part of the Make It, Eat It Try-It. They will plant them in Cool Whip tubs. I'm looking for seeds/plants that will grow in Michigan with a fairly good success rate and will be fun for the girls. For example, zuchinni seems to grow fairly good, but I'm not sure that 8-year-olds would like it. Watermelon and pumpkins are "fun", but I'm not sure they will be sucessful. (My siblings and I planted some as a kid, and we never had any sucess.) I've thought about cherry/grape tomatoes. Also, two girls will not be able to transfer them to the ground as they live in apartments. I've also thought about herbs - they seem to grow fast and would work well for the apartment girls, but I'm just not sure if kids would like them.

Any thoughs?

[kgraham]

I have to confess, I have no idea what would grow in Michigan, but perhaps you can do a mixture of seeds - some with a shorter period until you yield results and others with a longer one? That way if the pumpkins never produce, they will already have accomplished growing something else?

I think carrots and radishes are fairly easy to grow and have a relatively short period from planting until harvesting.
You mentioned zucchini as a possibility but are worried about the girls being willing to eat it - maybe you can do a different varity of summer squash (maybe they'd be more open minded towards a yellow scalloped squash?).
Cherry tomatoes are a good idea, too and I have grown them in containers so I think that would work.
You could also try planting edible flowers like nasturtiums or johnny-jump-ups (very easy to grow) and serve them on salad greens when its time to try them.
Hmmm now I'm thinking you could grow a whole garden of salad ingredients and then make a nice salad to try.....
Have fun! This sounds like a great project :)

[Escher]

Let them watch little things grow big. Carrots and Turnips would be boring to a kid, IMHO.

Try sunflowers and corn... big and tall plants!

[Chefzhat]

For Michigan, tomatoes might be late for starting from seed.

How about peas?? Chives? Cucumber?

[tamawrite]

Radishes! The seeds are relatively large and easy to handle. They like cook weather. They germinate in 5 days and mature in 25 days. Good for impatient kids!

Zucchini or acorn squash should work well, but of course they'll have to be transplanted to 5 gallon containers if they're to produce fruit.

You might want to rethink herbs, though -- many of them are tough to start from seed, and they don't do at all well with less than 6-8 hours of direct sunlight daily. Could be tough for apartment kids.

[LaraW]

what about green beans? I like the tomato idea, peppers would be another idea too.

[tamawrite]

Beans are a great idea. Look for bush beans so they don't need support, though! Also, almost any veggie will need something bigger than a Cool Whip containner if you're going to get fruit. Nasturtiums might tolerate that little space, but they won't want fussed over. Too much water or fertilizer, and they'll rebel!