Gardening With The Kids

When starting a garden with children, first decide on what they're interested in planting so you can steer them in the right direction, says Deanna Cook of Family Fun magazine. She visits The Early Show on Monday to share some terrific ideas for starting a garden with the children.

The following are a few suggestions from the magazine, as well as the book "FamilyFun Boredom Busters":

Vegetable Garden - Or a "pick and eat" garden. Planting a small vegetable garden with edible items your kid likes and eats, is a terrific way to include the little ones in the fun. Kids are natural grazers, and with fresh vegetables always at hand, they may even willingly get their five a day. Choose easy edibles like crunchy carrots, crisp green beans and cherry or grape tomatoes.

Herb Garden - Or a garden for your senses. This can either be done as its own garden, or as a part of the "pick and eat" garden. In this garden, you can choose the herbs and plants that you enjoy - basil, mint, lavender, etc.

Fast Growing/Big Plants Garden - Try planting a garden with big plants, which are very enjoyable for kids. Plants that grow quickly will also offer instant gratification. Gardening would be a whole lot more exciting for many kids if growing things didn't take so long. The following four varieties, however, shoot up right away in your garden:

1. Atlantic giant pumpkin: This pale, slightly lumpy pumpkin holds the current world weight record, topping 800 pounds. More typical are 50 and 100 pounds. 115 days to maturity.
   
2. Mammoth Russian sunflower: Flowers grow to 10 inches across on plants more than 10 feet tall. 120 days to maturity.
   
3. Scarlett runner beans: You can almost see this climbing vine grow (up to 12 feet), and the purple beans are as pretty as they are tasty. 70 to 115 days to maturity.
   
4. Morning glory: A fast-growing vine that rewards gardeners with a show of magnificent blossoms. It's invasive, so plant it alone. 110 to 120 days to maturity.

• Smooth rocks in various shapes and sizes
  
• Waterproof acrylic paints and brushes
  
• Puffy paint (optional)

1. Rinse the rocks to remove any dirt and let them dry. Apply a base coat of acrylic paint to the top and sides of each rock. You can paint the rocks to match the colors of the vegetables themselves.
   
2. When the base coat is dry, your child can decorate the rocks with the name of the appropriate flower or vegetable. In addition to row markers, you can also create some purely decorative rocks (for example, a "welcome to my garden" rock). For flourishes and lettering, the look of puffy paint is great. When the paint is dry, place the rocks in your garden.