COWBOYS AND CABBAGES
COUPLAND — Students from the gifted-and-talented program at the Coupland Independent School District planted a garden this fall and just harvested their first crop: cabbages.
The Cowboys — the district’s mascot — said they had fun, worked hard and learned a lot while earning their green thumbs.
“The garden has been a wonderful project that our GT students have been working on this fall with the help and encouragement of students, staff and teachers all over our school,” said Julie Lake, Coupland ISD librarian and giftedand- talented teacher.
Last year, Lake mentioned the idea of starting a garden and a composting program. The students returned to school this fall eager to earn their green thumbs.
Lake first put them to work researching compost. They created a Google slide show about their findings, and they presented it to the third, fourth and fifth grade classes, which led to students in all three grades gathering cafeteria food scraps, shredded paper from the school office and leaves from the playground for the compost bin.
“Much of this venture has been hands-on, trial- and-error learning,” Lake said.
Students learned that too much green matter, such as discarded fruit, and not enough brown matter, such as dead leaves, in a compost bin encourages swarms of fruit flies.
Coupland Middle School students in the gifted-and-talented and enrichment disciplines researched what plants should go in the garden using guides from the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service for Travis and Williamson counties.
They compared the days to harvest for seeds versus seedlings for various fall vegetable crops and decided to grow broccoli and cabbage.
Coupland fifth grade science teacher Kim Combs secured donations to purchase the compost bin and raised garden kits. Several middle school students and their science teacher Allison Schultz came to the school on a weekend to assemble the raised beds and compost bin.
“The helpful folks at Bloomers Nursery in Elgin helped me estimate how much soil and soil amendments we’d need for the beds,” Lake said.
Then, the Coupland PTA bought the soil, soil amendments and seedlings. Coupland athletics Coach Kyle Rinderknecht advised on when to plant the seedlings.
“Due to the unusually hot temperatures this fall, we didn’t plant the seedlings until October,” Lake said.
The students monitored, weeded and watered the garden weekly. The space drew visits and, according to Lake, included a few nibbles from Coupland’s youngest students on their way between the cafeteria and gym.
“We covered the garden ahead of the earlier freezes this winter,” Lake said, “but we didn’t want to push our luck when the forecast called for another hard freeze.”
The fifth grade students harvested the cabbages on Feb. 18 and presented a veggie bouquet to Coupland ISD cafeteria manager Christina Aldrete, who also has encouraged the pupils.
“Right from the beginning, she assured the students that she and her kitchen staff would make something tasty from whatever vegetables we succeeded in growing,” Lake said. “We can’t wait to see what she cooks up.”
