A GARDEN OF FRIENDSHIP; FAMILY THAT SOWS TOGETHER, GROWS TOGETHER.

Byline: Carol Bidwell Daily News Staff Writer

Vegetables and flowers aren't the only things that grow in a backyard garden.

Families sometimes grow closer there, too.

Lee Thompson of North Hills, a science teacher at San Fernando Middle School, and his grandson, 5-year-old Brian, have become best buddies ever since their garden began to blossom.

``We've actually got a project going together - and it's exciting,'' Thompson said. ``We have a friendship that can never be taken away.''

The pair turned a raised planter border in Thompson's back yard into a vegetable garden this spring - hoeing, digging, selecting plants and seeds, planting, weeding and harvesting as the summer warmed and the plants grew. The garden is filled with green beans, tomatoes, bell peppers, crookneck squash, eggplants and zucchini - including a few zuks that have tipped the scales at 5 pounds each.

Brian visits his grandpa once or twice a week, and both head to the garden to pull a few weeds and harvest vegetables.

``He loves to play in the dirt, getting in the mud and getting dirty,'' said Thompson with a laugh. ``And he takes a basket of tomatoes with him every time he goes home.''

Thompson got a Father's Day gift from Brian, too: a packet of sunflower seeds that both planted together.

``The garden has been a good experience for both of us,'' Thompson said. ``We've really bonded over it. I got to know my grandson, know his personality - the fact that he's a real jokester, for instance. Now, we're planning what we're going to plant in the fall.''

Natalie Barton of Woodland Hills says she's been gardening with her grandsons - 8-year-old Kyle and 3-year-old Jamey Barton, and 2-year-old Kanan Garrison - ``since they were able to walk.''

Last year, the big project was a bean teepee - supports stuck in the ground in a circle, tied together at the top to form a teepee shape - that bolstered bean vines, with sunflowers, tomatoes and cucumbers planted around it. This year, Barton and her grandsons have been harvesting Japanese cucumbers up to 14 inches long.

For the three boys, going to Grandma's means heading to the garden to see what's ripe. A small miscalculation in growing time has yielded pumpkins in July this year, but they're planning on planting again in time for jack-o'-lanterns for Halloween.

``They have their own special area and they take much pride in what they grow,'' Barton wrote. ``We have such fun at the nursery, looking and picking out exactly what they want.''

Thompson said the mutual gardening project has been a boon for all four of them, the mutual toil - even for the toddlers - allowing them a closeness they might never have found otherwise.

``There is no greater reward than watching their little hands work over the soil, plant the seeds and hearing them shout with excitement when they find a tomato or little pumpkin.''

And, she said, her grandsons ``never fail to remind me that all the little critters (squirrels, etc.) that visit our yard have the first pick'' of the harvest.

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Photo: Five-year-old Brian Thompson and granddad Lee Thompson have become best buddies ever since their garden began to blossom. ``We've actually got a project going together - and it's exciting,'' says the elder Thompson. ``We have a friendship that can never be taken away.''

Phil McCarten/Daily News