Impatient Gardener!

I am frustrated I live in zone 6 which means that you can't really plant alot of stuff til the end of April, serious bummer to those of us used to Feb and temporate climates! in the UK I mainly did Runner beans, strawberrys and toms, with varying degrees of success and enthusiasm! but on moving to The US and the real lack of lovely veg, I feel forced to grow, however within days of ordering my first catalog the forced as changed to obsessed!
I started by thinking about fooling nature, we have sun room, first mistake, although it is south facing the plants are west facing and are stringy looking for the light, still, those buggers will be planted and they can take their own chances! my other thought on cheating nature is using my basement which is a constant 60-65 is to grow early plants for the fall, which otherwise couldn't be grown due to the heat of summer and the cold of winter.
I have harnesed the unexpendable energy of my boys (4 year old twins) they are useful diggers, not in a methodical way, but in a random haphazard way in order to find worms and "put them in their house" and sing songs about worms to them!, it has saved me a lot of digging! I just rake level, after liberating the worms of course!
I have planted radish (very quick growing) beans (I use runner beans they tend to be in the flower section in the US but can be eaten after cooking, Yum!)sprouting seed again quick. I am prepared to sacrifice some veg along the way to show them the growing process (tried to do it when thinning out but quite frankly I go with their agender, they will never want to know when you want them to! and they will want to pull them out! so use it as thinning process)
I used a litre plastic juice bottle cut about 3/4 way up and 3/4 round, roll up newspaper, quite a thick wodge and put it in the bottle, push runner beans (a couple will do in case of failure, never happened yet though) down between the paper and plastic to about half way down, put about 1/2 inch of water in the bottom, basically so it touches the paper for about 1/2 inch, the water will soak up the paper. seal the cut bottle with tape and leave the lid off, put on a window sill, with the beans facing into the room, and wait, it only takes a few days for the root to become visable and this caused great excitement, not just from them! at this point I attempted to cut a ungerminated bean seed...managed and the lack of a finger isn't such a handicap these days I'm told!!! my husband then said I should have used a peanut! it shows, easily the root and stalk parts! DOH! so do this not the bean! the root grows down and down to find food, but because it has a good food source the stalk will eventually also appear, at this point (which was today) you need to plant them although I am sure I have left them longer without ill effects! one of mine was so happy today when I showed him, he hugged the bottle and said "thank you sooo much Bean" sweet! I never tried but I'm sure other beans would work, anyone know?.
I also gave them a small part of the garden to be theirs and a piece of paper each to plan their garden, I printed out a sheet of pictures of veg (which I stole off on line garden garden catalogs)(use powerpoint if you have it to save paper) got them to cut out the pic and stick them on the paper limit 6, they made some interesting choices, obviously brocolli and carrot which they love, but cauliflower, which they hate, its for you mummy, no fruits such as strawberrys? and they wanted flowers again for mummy, I gave in and we are using sunflower and nasturtium, sunflower spectalcular, seeds attract bird which my two like and if any left after the birds! can be eaten, nasturtium, because my aunt assures me they grow quickly! I have never grow flowers before so an interesting experiment for me. I only intend to let them have say 6 carrots and hope they grow! because they really need ownership and responsibily at this age not quantity, thats my job!, be prepared to tend their plots when they get bored and above all enjoy it, I built some raised beds on a slope yesterday and was amazed how much I got done without them around but found my self bored because they weren't around to sing "there's a worm at the bottom of my Garden, and his name is Wiggley Woo" I made the raise bed from an old toddler bed! and until my birthday last week I was using their yellow plastic watering can! check out making newspaper pots on the web, don't buy a shaper it easy, just damp the paper first, egg boxes for seed starting, I got hand tools from the dollar tree, they may not last long but they are a handly size for children.

the pictures above are of my raised bed! literally! IT is an extendable Ikea bed, the ground is really stoney and is a pig to dig (a poet) its also on a slope which is far from ideal, to the right is the previous owners terracing, stone free but still on a slope, so decided on raised beds, but my skill level really isn't great (me and powers tools? big no no!) then I saw the bed? I split it into the two half's and put them in upside down. haven't finished the top part yet. you can see how stoney the big rock next to the top part was so heavy I couldn't move it any further, my neighbour calls them stones! but when you see the rocks in my garden, it is more understandable to say stone! by the way, this bed had died after 4 moves, the boys still have beds! it was second hand for 25 quid in the Uk