Hey Salem girl, Welcome! I went to Salem Central High School. Beautiful area.

My daughter loved green beans (still does,) so she helped me create a bean teepee when she was six. The pole beans grew quite well on that. She could hide in there and eat them straight off the vine. (Her favorite method. Very fresh.) It could be fun to read Jack and the Beanstalk when you plant these. Bean seeds are very accomodating to young fingers. Some varieties have beautiful scarlet flowers, with amazing long bean pods. (Look in asian vegetable sections of garden catalogues.)

We also gorw beautiful morning glory vines outside her bedroom window, to shade her west bedroom wall. These reach the eaves before the end of summer, and come in beautiful girly-girl colors. You can even sow these now, as they have a hard seed coat, that overwintering helps to break. The morning glories do come back from seed on their own, so some people say they can spread, but I haven't had a problem with this. I do find them sprouting out of my compost the next year, from the discarded vines (well, from the seeds contained on those vines, actually.) But I find them to be easy to pull. Morning glories don't attract many bees, at least not in my yard. Humming birds like them though.

Have fun gardening with your daughter. My daughter still gardens with me, even though she's a teenager. The bugs have always been her favorite part. (And she's a real girly-girl too ;-)

Thank you! I may try the beans. I'm not a big fan of morning glories. I was hoping for something more exotic looking, but you say the bean plants have interesting red flowers? I'll check them out.

She'll be going to Central too...one day.

Thanks again,
Salem_girl

Most beans don't have red flowers. but you can find some in the garden catalogs that do. Try Park's seeds.

I just notived there is a vines forum. They might have some other ideas.

Consider grapes. Plant them at each leg. Makes an interesting arbor after a few years. By the time your daughter is no longer interested in swinging, you will have a grape arbor loaded with grapes. My parents did this, by the way.

Always an...Angel