A kids' first garden

The thing that loses a child's interest in a garden is the wait. Most vegetables take two or three months to do anything visible, which is a geological age when you're six.

So this bed is picked for tempo. Radishes break the surface in three or four days and are pullable in a month. Sunflowers get tall enough to measure a child against. Beans keep producing as long as you keep picking, which turns harvesting into something that happens every few days rather than once.

Nasturtiums are the other trick: the flowers and leaves are edible and peppery, so there's something in the bed you're allowed to eat straight off the plant.

The layout

North is the top row. Each square is one foot.

A kids' first garden: a 4 foot by 4 foot bed, north row first, one plant per square foot.
Sunflower (north-west corner)	Sunflower	Sunflower	Sunflower
Bush Beans	Bush Beans	Bush Beans	Bush Beans
Radish	Radish	Lettuce	Lettuce
Nasturtium	Nasturtium	Radish	Radish

Open this plan in the Garden Designer →

It opens with the bed already laid out. Free, no account, nothing to install. Change anything you like: the designer will flag bad neighbours as you move plants and work out sowing dates for your own zone.

What's in it

Sunflowerabout 2 squares each · 80 days to bloom · zones 2–11
Bush Beans9 per square foot · 55 days to harvest · zones 3–11
Radish16 per square foot · 25 days to harvest · zones 2–10
Lettuce4 per square foot · 45 days to harvest · zones 2–10
Nasturtium1 per square foot · 55 days to bloom · zones 2–11

Why these sit next to each other

Sunflower and Bush Beans: Sturdy stalk can serve as a living trellis for pole beans once well established.
Lettuce and Radish: Radish matures fast and breaks up soil for lettuce.

Companion planting is a mix of well-evidenced effects and garden tradition. We say which is which on each plant profile rather than presenting all of it as settled.

How to work this bed

The sunflower row is on the north edge on purpose. Anywhere else and it shades the rest of the bed by August.
Sow radishes a few at a time rather than all at once, so there's always something ready to pull.
Beans need something to climb. A few canes or a length of netting against the sunflower row is enough, and the sunflower stems themselves will take some of the weight.

Timing it for where you live

Nothing above says when, because that depends entirely on your hardiness zone. Open the plan in the designer and it produces a week-by-week schedule for your own zone, or look the crops up individually on the planting calendar.

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A 4x4 bed chosen for speed and payoff: radishes up in a week, sunflowers overhead, beans to pick standing up, and nasturtiums you can eat.

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