Tucked into one corner of the beautifully renovated Chapman Park is a small space destined to have a large impact: the Chapman Park Community Garden. Chapman Park sits on three acres adjacent to the Dorothy F. Johnson Center in the heart of the Chapman neighborhood.

The value of open spaces to the health of a community cannot be overstated. Urban areas, particularly those with dense or multi-family housing, can provide great benefit to their populations by offering free and accessible areas to run and climb, to swing and jump, to play with joy and abandon.

A few years ago, the Chico Area Recreation District (CARD) received funding through California's Proposition 68, the California Drought, Water, Parks, Climate, Coastal Protection, And Outdoor Access for All Act of 2018. That pool of money provides grants for projects which, among other things, “develop future recreational opportunities, or enhance drought tolerance, landscape resilience, and water retention.”

Once awarded the grant, CARD began collaborating with other groups to transform a previously neglected space into a vibrant park offering a variety of amenities guaranteed to delight.  These include a multi-use open turf playing field; two basketball courts; a futsal court (futsal is a modified soccer game played on a smaller field); a splash pad (open from late spring until winter); restrooms; a pavilion; a large playground; and picnic tables with barbecue grills.Local artists contributed to the design of the park facilities. Of special note are the murals on two sides of the restroom building, created by The Rainforest Project in collaboration with Chapman Elementary School. The murals and metal art in the park highlight regional nature elements such as oak trees and salmon. Chapman Park now draws in neighbors of all ages and is alive with sounds of play and fun.

The grant proposal included an educational component: specifically, learning about healthy food and how to grow and prepare it through the development of a community garden. And that is where the UC Master Gardeners of Butte County (MGs) entered the picture. Parks Director Scott Schumann approached the MGs about partnering on planning, developing, and using the proposed garden area for education. Project details were specified in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which stated that MGs would use the garden space for teacher and student education as well as for classes aimed at community members. CARD looks forward to hosting garden camps for youth, classes for adults, and seeing the garden come alive with community use and educational opportunities for all to enjoy.

Back in 2018, Master Gardener Joyce Hill began helping to develop the MG Living Labs program, which teams MGs with local schools to teach Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) through gardening. These Standards advocate for science education that encourages kids to experience and explore the interconnected nature of science, technology, and engineering in real world situations.

The MG Living Lab group was instrumental in designing the Community Garden and bringing the MOU to completion in July of 2023. Then the work could begin! The Living Lab crew, along with design assistance from Landscape Architect Greg Melton, CARD personnel, and over 50 volunteers from the Chico Noon Rotary Club, got busy constructing the new space. In one very busy six-hour day the Rotarians laid down about twenty cubic yards of soil and ten cubic yards of decomposed granite, constructed all the boxes for raised beds, installed steel edging, and built a sink space for handwashing and harvesting!

The area was developed with an imaginative use of space to include as many raised beds as possible. The intent was to create a Model School Garden Living Lab to train educators and to use in real-life experiments for the Living Lab teaching modules. Approximately half of the beds are slated for educational purposes and the other half are devoted to neighborhood community gardeners. The garden area is fenced, but not locked, and is accessible to all.

Within the fenced area, twenty variously shaped raised beds are clustered along paths of hard-packed decomposed granite. Four of these beds are ADA compliant, and one is reserved for a special lesson on the Three Sisters (see below). A large garden shed sits on a raised foundation, and along one side of it a sink and stainless-steel counters have been installed for nutrition education and food preparation.

The Three Sisters: Native peoples across the Americas planted The Three Sisters (corn, squash, and beans) together. This resourceful planting method ensures plant health and conserves precious water; the combined foods supply healthy nutrition and a complete protein. In the Chapman Park Community Garden, MGs and students will plant seeds for popcorn, pumpkin, and shell beans in April. The lesson will include the background story of the Three Sisters. When the kids return to school in the fall, they will harvest the bounty and prepare a soup from a recipe that includes these three ingredients.

Living Lab and Science Education Beds: The garden itself is meant to help students integrate science skills and test theories about growing edible plants, and food in general. There are raised beds reserved for each different grade level and the accompanying lessons that align with the science standards. The eight practices of science and engineering in the NGSS are the following:

1. Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)

2. Developing and using models

3. Planning and carrying out investigations

4. Analyzing and interpreting data

5. Using mathematics and computational thinking

6. Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering)

7. Engaging in argument from evidence

8. Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information

For details of how the Master Gardeners' Living Lab program addresses these eight practices, see: Get Outside: Environmental Education for Kids and From School Gardens to Outdoor Science Labs.

In June 2024, the first educational training took place in the Chapman Park Community Garden. The topic was Seeds and Worms, and there were approximately 15 participants from the Butte County Office of Education and other schools in our region, including Yuba City. In addition to its use in training school educators, this space can be used to train new MGs in the Living Lab principles and to train presenters involved in the Master Gardeners Public Workshop Series, which takes place each Fall and Spring. 

Community Beds: The garden beds reserved for community members are meant to demonstrate what can be done in home gardens. Community education classes are planned to coincide with the seasons (for example, seed starting in early spring). In addition, Chapman school will use the gardens for field trips. Other goals for community education include using the garden to teach science to those for whom English is their second language, and as a garden camp where kids can explore cooking and crafts.

The Chapman Park Community Garden had its Grand Opening about one year ago. A real labor of love, the creation of this community garden involved collaboration with several government entities and many volunteers from throughout the community. Living Lab educator Joyce Hill summed up the broad vision of the park recently, stating that she could “see the impact that these gardens have on passersby – young and old -- in the neighborhood is where it's happening. We come to them instead of them coming to us.”

If there's a local gardener on your gift list this holiday season, why not give them a Butte County Garden Guide and Three-Year Journal?  Compiled and edited by the UC-trained Master Gardeners of Butte County, this county-specific book contains tips for every home gardener. All proceeds from the guide go to the Demonstration Garden at Patrick Ranch and other Master Gardener community outreach projects in Butte County. The Garden Guide is available in Chico at Magnolia Gift and Garden, The Plant Barn, and the Master Gardener booth at the Saturday Farmers Market. It can also be ordered online on our website.

UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system.  To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area visit our website.  If you have a gardening question or problem, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu or leave a phone message on our Hotline at 530-552-5812. To speak to a Master Gardener about a gardening issue, or to drop by the MG office during Hotline hours, see the most current information on our Ask Us section of our website.