Teaching plant growth to seventh-grade life science students has been interesting for the author because she grew up in a rural area and always had to help in the garden. She made many assumptions about what her rural and suburban students knew. One year she decided to have them grow plants to observe the roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruit as they studied these parts. To keep it simple, she bought nine-bean soup mix from the grocery store and allowed the students to choose anything from the mix except the split peas. This lab activity is described in this article.