Growing More Than Plants: Oak Bridge Academy’s Garden Club

At Oak Bridge Academy in Chico, learning doesn’t just happen behind a screen. It’s also taking root in soil, sunshine and student-led learning.

As part of the Chico Unified School District, Oak Bridge Academy offers a unique K-12 independent study program. This free public school option gives families flexibility in how, when and where their child learns, while still providing support from credentialed teachers. Students can work at their own pace academically while also participating in clubs, sports and extracurricular activities.

Chico’s Oak Bridge Academy gardening students are rightly proud of the beautiful vegetables they grow and harvest themselves and share with their families. Photos provided by Oak Bridge Academy

Community Support Provides a Unique Educational Opportunity

One example of that educational balance is the school’s growing Garden Club, a project that has become a labor of love led by teacher Nicole Ballew. What began as a small garden idea has steadily grown into an expansive hands-on learning program complete with raised garden beds, a greenhouse, pollinator gardens and a newly planted fruit orchard.

The project first took root in 2022 when Ballew applied for a School Garden Grant through the University of California Cooperative Extension. After receiving the grant, she worked alongside students, families and community volunteers to help build the school’s first outdoor garden beds and irrigation system. Additional grants through Chico Rotary Club and the Chico Horticultural Society later helped fund fencing around the garden space.

As the Garden Club continued to grow, so did Ballew’s vision. Realizing students could learn even more through seed starting and plant propagation, she began pursuing funding for a greenhouse as part of a larger five-phase master plan that also includes pollinator pathways, a fruit orchard and future bee education. Her dedication paid off in 2025 when she received a $20,000 California Teachers Association grant to help bring the greenhouse project to life.

Through hands-on agricultural experiences, school gardens are helping to grow minds as well as food, providing some of the best learning opportunities outside of traditional classrooms.

School Garden Provides Meaningful Hands-On Experience

Today, the Oak Bridge garden focuses on growing seasonal fruits, vegetables, flowers and young orchard trees that will eventually produce pears, apples, peaches, nectarines, citrus, persimmons and more. Even Ballew’s classroom reflects her passion for gardening and plant education. The room is filled with plants that students learn to propagate and grow before transferring seedlings into the greenhouse and outdoor garden beds.

For students who spend much of their academic time online or learning independently at home, this kind of hands-on experience is especially meaningful. Living in Chico, surrounded by agriculture, students can better understand where food comes from while also learning about responsibility and teamwork.

Ballew takes to heart a quote by Alfred Austin, “The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.” The Oak Bridge garden has become a place where students can get their hands dirty, and more importantly, get to see and enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Growing More Than a Garden

Learning extends far beyond gardening. Students explore sustainability, environmental science and real-world applications through planting, harvesting and caring for the space together. When produce is ready, students can take fruits and vegetables home to their families. As the program continues to expand, Ballew hopes to incorporate cooking lessons using garden-grown ingredients and eventually provide dehydrated produce bags to Chico Unified families in need during the summer and fall months.

Garden Club is a reminder that some of the best learning happens outside the traditional classroom. At Oak Bridge Academy, students are given the freedom to learn in a way that fits their needs while also finding meaningful opportunities to connect, contribute and grow.

As the garden continues to flourish, so do the students, gaining pride in what they’ve built together. And while the harvest will come and go, the lessons learned there are the kind that last well beyond the season.