You say gardens don't interest kids?

Don't let your kids see the May/June issue of Midwest Living.

They'll want the featured Fun House from a North Shore suburb.

The contemporary home fashioned from a boring ranch house features lots of bright primary colors inside and out.

Another article features a Nebraska garden where two boys have a lot of fun with a clubhouse, dinosaur, sledding trail and terra-cotta chiminea.

But Mom has fun with roses, hostas, brunneras and hydrangeas. And Dad plants and cares for the trees.

And also from the magazine, a short list of annuals to brighten your yard this summer, selected by experts across the Midwest:

• Gerbera daisies for sun or partial shade.

• Tidal Wave petunias, sun.

• Serena angelonia series, sun.

• Evolution salvia, sun or partial shade.

• Summer Wave Amethyst torenia, sun or partial shade.

Succulents make fun topiaries

Succulents are all the rage, and you can see why here.

This definitely high-end designer handbag is from Chalet in Wilmette. It has 300 plants on it and is priced at about $200.

You'll want to park your purse inside next winter, but it will love tripping outdoors when it's warm.

Call (847) 256-0561 or visit www.chaletnursery.com.

Succulents developed to preserve water in desert climates, but some are hardy in our area. These versions are perfect for roof gardens and other sunny, hard-to-tend areas.

Enrich, plant, watch, pick, eat

Wendy Johnson's large book "Gardening at the Dragon's Gate" (Bantam, $25) is about what you would expect from a Zen Buddhist meditation teacher who gardens organically.

In other words, you will learn a lot about gardening, but probably more about living on the earth and saving the environment.

And of course, if you are interested in composting, this is a book for you.

A favorite chapter tells what kinds of weeds help consolidate minerals, break up the ground and feed beneficial insects for a new vegetable garden.

Before you gasp and decide this woman is extremely crazy, she does warn never to let your weeds go to seed or they will take over the garden.

Her choices include stinging nettle, chickweed, lupine and even tender thistles.

Here are her tips for figuring what nutrients your soil needs, although she warns there could be other causes for these symptoms:

Nitrogen deficiency shows when bottom leaves turn yellow and do not grow large. Older leaves above them turn colors.

Not enough potassium creates stunted plants, especially grains and trees. Leaves look scorched.

Lack of phosphorus leads to plants with reddish-purple leaves and seeds that do not fill out.

-- Deborah Donovan