The Library's website for the children's garden (
visit link) informs us:
"The Children’s Garden provides young visitors, primarily ages two to seven, with hands-on experiences that demonstrate scientific principles related to earth, fire, air, and water. Youngsters can walk through mist in the Rainbow Room, crawl through a tunnel to view a colorful prism of light, and feel the effects of sound waves moving through water in a sonic pool.
childrenPlants such as topiary animals, weeping mulberry trees, papyrus, and tree aloes create a whimsical atmosphere. Parents and grandparents can watch their children from shaded benches in the garden’s center or from a comfortable overlook platform, complete with a rocking chair.
The Garden centers on the four ancient elements-–Fire, Water, Earth and Air. These are the raw elements that fuel the plant world and, through plant growth, give rise to the oxygen, food, resources, and habitats that sustain human life.
FIRE
Fire yields light and heat, demonstrated through the power of sunlight whose energy plants use to create their food.
Tunnel: Crawl through the tunnel where prisms break sunlight into colored arcs and soft halos.
Topiary Volcano: Sunlight fuels the flame-colored leaves of New Zealand flax growing atop the volcano. Rampant vines form a shady refuge.
Rainbow Room: Pulses of mist break sunlight into a circular rainbow that shimmers against the background of miniature Bull Bay magnolias.
WATER
Water gives movement to our lives and the world around us. Plants take water in through their roots and lose it through their leaves.
Sonic Pool: Vibrations at the rim of the basin create waves that interfere with each other to produce dynamic effects–causing water to ripple, and even dance around the edge.
Vortex and Water Bells: Change the flow of water in the Vortex, and watch the effects of the water as it swirls through the funnel. At the Water Bells, water forms umbrella-like shapes, only to be pierced and reshaped by small hands.
Marble Jets: These small jets propel grape-sized spurts of water in to the air.
EARTH
Earth is soil, rock, pebbles, stone and metal. The earth is where plants root and where they get their nutrients.
Magnetic Sand
Magnetic sand comes from ocean sediments. It is attracted to the two powerful magnets and provides an opportunity to create interesting shapes—a lesson in the interaction of force fields.
Self-Centered Globe
With Los Angeles positioned at the top, the globe shows how the sun is striking the Earth at this very moment. Look and feel for evidence of Earth’s sunrise and sunset, shadows, and surface heat.
Pebble Chimes
Pebbles ring out while bouncing through a maze of metal posts. Compose your own sounds, from solo, to symphony, to cacophony in an interplay of materials and physics.
AIR
Air is a forgotten substance, until it is made visible—by fog or smoke. But the atmosphere is the greatest nutrition source on Earth, providing all of the carbon dioxide plants require to make the food they use to grow.
Fragrance Garden
Gentle aromas waft through this formal passageway planted with citrus, rosemary, lavender, and other fragrance-rich plants. Smell and flowers and leaves.
Fog Grotto
Experience the swirl of clouds and the constant currents that move around us. Fog, generated by nearly 100 high-pressure nozzles, flows in and fills the grotto, only to be swept away by a sudden breeze."