Possibly lettuce and spinach. You need cool season plants now and your season may not be long enough at this point to get much to grow well. what you might be able to do right now is start preparing a garden bed for spring. Mark it out, get some compost on it maybe cover it with some sort of weed barrier till spring when he can plant his veggies in a weed free zone. I'm planning on a tom thumb garden for my kids in the spring ages 6 and 3. We will plant tiny tomatoes, little finger carrots, and I heard you can get other veggies in miniature such as lettuce, and cucumber, onions, mini beets, and peas. good luck

Arugula, carrots (should have been planted late August, but close enough), corn salad, garlic (has very cool twisty stems), radishes, spinach -- according to the planting chart for coastal BC from West Coast Seeds.

Your area is a little warmer, you might still get results from cauliflower or brussel sprouts planted out if you can find started ones.

Hey, thanks! I'll look into some of this stuff. Since we homeschool, it can be incorporated as a fun learning experience, if Mom can figure out what the heck she's doing! ;-)

If you're willing to leave plants lights on 16 hours a day....Two winters ago we planted leaf lettuce "for fun" underneath plant lights in the basement. We harvested lettuce!!! I also had marigolds BLOOM under the lights (I planted them too soon), which I thought was interesting.

If the kids would be interested in just SEEING how plants grow, line a clear glass mayonnaise-type jar with wet paper towel, and put seeds between the toweling and the grass. The kids will be able to see the bean seed change as the seed sprouts. (which will be too spindly to grow into real plants, but at least they'll see some action!)

You might also be able to grow lawn grass seeds in paper cups on a sunny window sill. Both of my boys had success with this and had to give their grass "haircuts".

Try the avocado seed in the FAQ's, too.

Coleus (and some of those other indoor ivy-type plants) will root from cuttings. They can watch their plants grow roots, then pot them up.

Hope this gives you some ideas to keep the little gardeners busy over the winter!

Julie

Come over to the winter sowing forum. Tons of info on what you can start to plant now!

Get a sweet potato, suspend it in a glass of water. Put tooth picks in it so that about 1/2 is above water, out of the glass. It will sprout and vine all over the place. We used to have one ever winter, when the kids were little. Lotta