Kid-Friendly Veggie Garden Plans

All the plant and seed catalogs are coming out and I love to spend the evening curled up thumbing through them and dreaming big about how spectacular my veggie garden will be (and how this will be the year I conquer the weeds and slugs...I did say dream big, right?!).  A book I love with some great ideas on how to make veggie gardening exciting and stimulating for kids is "Roots, Shoot, Buckets and Boots" by Sharon Lovejoy.  Not only does it have great garden plans but it really is a kid-friendly read with ideas for experiments and wonderful illustrations.  I really want to tackle the sunflower/morning glory house plans this year and I'm planning a variation on their tepee idea with pole beans and moonflowers.  She has lots of specific veggie seed suggestions for plants that are easy for kids to grow and give fun learning opportunities throughout the summer.  My kids love to learn about all the things that show up in our garden and even the neighbor boys have been overcome with curiousity and I had 3 extra "helpers" to squish tomato hornworms and dig carrots last summer.  They were so excited every time to take home produce for dinner that they had helped me plant in the spring - and I felt just as rewarded by their excitement!