Kids love getting outside and digging in the dirt. And gardening can be a great way to get some fruits - or vegetables or flowers - out of their labor.

The Idaho Botanical Garden in Boise is sponsoring a kids craft feature at the 13th annual U.S. Bank Boise Flower & Garden Show from March 20 to 22. So while you're browsing the latest from bonsai and bulbs to sculptures and soil, your children can plant a seed to take home.

"We've gotten donations from Zamzows in the past, so it depends on what Zamzows wants to donate. But there'll be pots and potting soil, and we'll help the kids plant the seeds and explain why they planted them at a certain depth," said Elizabeth Dickey, education director at the Idaho Botanical Garden. "Then they can put it in a little bag and take it home and watch the plant grow from there."

The plants will likely do better growing in the ground instead of the pot, so children can let them grow to a certain size and then transfer them outside to their own special garden.

"Give them a small plot of land - 3 by 3 feet is plenty - in a sunny spot and have them practice growing some things that grow pretty easily," Dickey said. She suggested simple vegetables such as beans or flowers to get your budding gardener started.

To continue nurturing your child's green thumb, the Idaho Botanical Garden has a lot of opportunities for children, including a summer camp program and designated family days at the garden, with a new pumpkin patch to be added this year.

"We're designating a large patch and starting with seeds, and if kids wanted to, over time they could come to the garden and watch the pumpkins grow and then come back and harvest a pumpkin," Dickey said.

The Idaho Botanical Garden also is working on a children's adventure garden.

But like most gardens, there may not be a whole lot to see until well into the fall, according to Dickey.

"We're putting in this new children's adventure garden starting this spring. It'll be a 1-acre-long garden. A place where they can dig in the dirt, roll down the hill, splash in the water, with plants to smell and touch," Dickey said.

"It will be more of a sensory, exploratory sort of thing. There should be something to see within a year, maybe by the fall."

Brenda Gutierrez: 377-6440