1.Plant a "salad" or "pizza" garden in a giant pot; include a bush tomato, oregano, basil, leaf lettuce, and a cucumber vine.

2.Grow flowers like violets, daisies, pansies,coreopsis, and ornamental grasses; press the blooms to preserve them and save them for craft projects next winter.

3.Make your own salsa from homegrown tomatoes.

4.Plant "baby" anything: beets, carrots, spinach, filet beans, potatoes. Vegetables taste better when you've harvested and prepared them yourself.

5.Grow anything "giant:" sunflowers, pumpkins, dahlias, squash. Bigger is better.

6.Start an oak tree from an acorn. Or plant a "signature" tree with your child; let him or her help choose the variety.

7.Fill a small plot with plants that are interesting to touch: lamb's ear, strawflower, snapdragon. A fragrance garden can include scented geraniums, herbs, lavender, and rosemary.

8.Plant a little cactus garden in an old worn-out sneaker. Use succulents without thorns such as hens-n-chicks and trailing sedums.

9.Gather rose petals for drying into potpourri. Fill a small muslin bag or decorate a bowl to hold the dried petals.