Passing on a love for gardening

My 13 year old son has caught the gardening bug.  He put in (with very little help from me) a winter garden of lettuce, spinach, parsnips, beets and turnips.  The beets and turnips didn't come up.  I guess we put them out too late.  The lettuce and spinach did great.  The parsnips were a bust, even though they came up.  I got something like 6 itty bitty ones.  We'll try again later.

But, he wants to put in an extensive garden this spring.  He researched things like oats, buckwheat, millet and quinoa.  Plus the things that I call a "salad garden" - lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. We started planning for this spring.  I will start home schooling him tomorrow, and we're including gardening in his science curriculum.  Here in Texas, we can start things in February inside, to transplant out side by March 15.

We have researched the start dates in our zone for all that we want to plant.  We have a 4 ft X 8 ft raised garden bed.  He plans on planting the grains next to the fence row.  It will be a privacy addition as well as breaking up the soil a bit.

I'll let you know how it goes.