One idea I saw on the Internet, was to grow climbing beans on a narrow, four foot teepee, so they grew together and looked like a beanstalk. They put a small house at the bottom of the beanstalk, a little figure for "Jack" climbing the beanstalk, and a bigger figure for "the Giant" at the top of the beanstalk. I thought this was a cute idea and a good way to get children involved in gardening.

I have also posted this on the Gardening with Kids forum, but I thought you all might have some great ideas here. Thanks for the help!

Syble, I did see the Wizard of Oz on the Fairy tale list I was looking at on the Internet yesterday. It was listed as an American fairy tale and it's always been one of my favorites :)

I see the playhouses at garage sales every once in a while, but they sell so fast!
It would be fun to make the roof look like straw and paint the walls to look like stones. And maybe have a little stone path up to the door.

And with a couple cute little dwarf statues peeking out from behind some flowers.

You could have a whole village of fairy tale cottages!

But meanwhile you can check out this site of cool ones.

The Snow White cottage would be so cute and Alice in Wonderland, what a creative way to use a tree stump. Humpty Dumpty and the Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe, Jack and Jill, they're all great possiblities. I hope Calamity Jane posts some pictures when she's done!

The "plan" is to make six 8'x8' beds that will include the following: the two back beds will be corn and pumpkins in one, potatoes and bush beans in the other. The two middle beds will be bean teepee with pole beans on one side (with broccoli in back) and a cool top half of a 6'x6' metal gazebo on the other side, planted with mini pumpkins, gourds, and cucumbers, with melons planted between the four "legs". It looks like a metal spider and the nephews are really excited! The two front beds will be (BHG's garden plan) for the "Italian" garden on one side and the miniatures on the other...mini carrots, baby peas, cherry tomatoes, etc.

What I need help with is the decorations. Besides "spidey" I don't have much else yet. I would love to make a scarecrow for the corn and find some "leprechauns" for the potato bed. Also need some cute ideas for the other areas. Would love to incorporate some of the fairy tale themes mentioned earlier, as well as find a Linus for the mini-pumpkin patch. (LOL)

Any ideas, pictures, would love to see them :)

*Off-topic, they would look even cuter with two normal-sized roses, one red and one white. :)

Naturegirl- I love the spiders on the gazebo, the rabbit and baby in the mini-veggies. This is really going to add a lot of fun to the garden for the nieces and nephews!

Have fun! Jeanne S.