Gardeners relish the experience of looking at the pictures in seed catalogs, and exploring all the options for the upcoming spring. As you plan your garden, looking through these vibrant pages will make your selection of vegetables and flowers all the more exciting.They also feature growing instructions for individual plants - including depth, spacing and sun requirements.

An added bonus is that seed catalogs can be used for a variety of projects. Kids can cut and paste the images into their own garden designs, collages, or garden memory games. And did we mention that they are free?

Order your seeds several weeks before planting. Sign up for mail away seed catalogs online - try any of these companies:

Garden Hint. When you plan your garden, you can keep it simple and stress free with vegetables such as radishes, carrots, beans, and lettuce. But have you and your kids ever laid eyes on a watermelon radish, a sun gold tomato, a Chinese red noodle bean, or a head of deer tongue lettuce? Enjoy the fun in exploring all of the wild varieties of the vegetables you thought you knew! And the best part is, they are just as easy to grow as the everyday varieties.