Christopher A.
Google
Went near mid-February for the first time and was pleasantly surprised! I expected it to feel smaller but it's a good sized area, despite a small portion near the entrance being closed off for guests for some remodeling.
The entrance is a little odd, somewhat hard to miss if you don't know where you're going. The gate had a no trespassing sign but also an open sign, so we just looked over at the guard to be sure we can go in and he waved us off.
Decent amount of parking; I hope entering on foot will be made less awkward once construction finishes.
We entered through the Admin building and there were some interesting little artifacts and displays. The architecture is really cool, looks kinda brutalist with all the concrete; it's definitely unique for the Valley. The inside does smell a bit musty since some of the water does pool into the interior. But it's not too bad, just like maybe an indoor pool that doesn't get treated with chlorine.
That musty smell does stay whenever you're around the water and, of course, when you to the observation deck over the treatment plant; but again, it's not that bad, though sometimes you will get punched by a random bad whiff.
The garden itself is beautiful, surprisingly well kept, it's good to see people respect the space here. There wasn't a crowd at all when we went either, so you definitely got some of the visual peace intended by the garden. Only sad thing is the surprisingly distracting noise from the airplanes going in and out of Van Nuys; but that's beyond anyone's hands and if you like planes, it could be a good place for plane spotting.
Most trees had shed most of their leaves except for the evergreens and the camelias were looking very full; some cherry blossoms were even starting to flower, but most were just budding which was still beautiful to see.
One thing I hadn't expected was the amount of mosquitos. There were some points where you had to cover your mouth and wave through literal clouds of mosquitos at risk of getting them in your mouth, ears and eyes. I think they're the tiny male ones, since they tend to cloud up like that, which is good because at least those don't bite. I'm not sure if they're more or less common in certain seasons, it had rained the day before so maybe that brought them all up. But considering how many there were, I'm guessing the mosquito fish were on strike or something.
The birds are another highlight of the garden. Lots of ducks of all kinds hang out in the pond, as well as egrets and cormorants. Only downside is that they also do their business in the garden, so that musty smell might be partially their fault!
In all, it's a very cool spot and definitely worth visiting often. It's cool to see a public utility, the treatment plant, be host to a space like this.