Front to back, master gardener Jan LeBard digs holes for raspberry bushes in the community garden at Cooper School with the help of fifth grader Austin Carmichael, 11, while his classmate Dale Howard, 11, scoops up water for the plants with small construction cones.. (Superior Telegram file photo, 2010)

Cooper Elementary Garden Springs to Life

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Cooper Community Learning Garden Set for Success

By Brett Brodeen, Principal, Cooper Elementary School

Front to back, master gardener Jan LeBard digs holes for raspberry bushes in the community garden at Cooper School with the help of fifth grader Austin Carmichael, 11, while his classmate Dale Howard, 11, scoops up water for the plants with small construction cones.. (Superior Telegram file photo, 2010)

Front to back, master gardener Jan LeBard digs holes for raspberry bushes in the community garden at Cooper School with the help of fifth grader Austin Carmichael, 11, while his classmate Dale Howard, 11, scoops up water for the plants with small construction cones.. (Superior Telegram file photo, 2010)

With the sun shining, the Cooper Community Learning Garden is starting to spring to life! Every year we experience a newness of life and see patches that looked dead and dormant come alive. Our community learning garden is exactly the same.

However, this year we not only see plants restarting, but we also have the opportunity to see new programs start. This summer we will boast a greenhouse, three differing years of straw bale gardens, ten raised bed gardens, a berry garden, and a full butterfly habitat!

The greenhouse has been fully enclosed and with the help of our district carpenters the exterior trim will be completed shortly. With the gracious help from Calumet, through a grant, we were able to purchase a solar powered attic vent to help us regulate the greenhouse temperature.


Now we are looking for some handymen/women to help us design and build a “sunny side” shelving system and a “shade side” storage system.


For the urban gardeners out there, we are on the third year of our Straw Bale Garden experiment. Over the last couple years Straw Bale gardens have been popular in tight spaces, concrete parking lots, and roof tops. Each year rather than recycling the previous years garden, we have kept it decomposing and have grown out of it another year. For our students this has been a very visual and tangible way to see how plant materials decompose and fertile soil is made.

After learning about Square Foot Gardening last year from Master Gardner, Jan LeBard, our grade levels have organized their raised bed gardens. We have six grade levels (K-5), early childhood (4K), and a district SpEd program that have each taken charge of their own garden. In these gardens our students and staff’s creativity is evident.


Now we are looking for community families willing to “adopt” the garden for one week increments in the summer.


When your family adopts the community garden we ask you to do some light weeding and watering of the gardens. The garden is always open for community members to harvest any vegetables they wish to eat, and as the adopted family you will be the first to know when produce ripens. If you are interested please me (Brett Brodeen) at 715-394-8790 or email at brett.brodeen@superior.k12.wi.us.

Our third grade classes have made the commitment to “Be a Hero!” They have been awarded the Butterfly Heroes grant through the National Wildlife Federation and The Ranger Rick Magazine. Each of our four 3rd grade classes will be receiving a kit along with explicit directions as to how to change one portion of our Community Learning Garden into a complete Monarch Butterfly Habitat.

With the right plants, flowers, and cover we will be able to witness a Monarch in all four phases of its life cycle. The eggs will be laid, the Monarch Caterpillar (larvae) will feed on our plants, the chrysalis (pupa) will find cover in our garden, and finally the young adult Monarch Butterflies will have a good start for our flower nectar.

This is truly a Community..Learning…Garden! Therefore, any way you would like to get involved we would love to learn from you, or we can learn together! Please don’t hesitate to contact the school, Mr. Brodeen, or the Garden team!




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