A 40-foot-tall river birch towers over hundreds of other pretty specimens of nature, including California and East Coast fuchsia, Jerusalem sage, dwarf calla lilies and foxtail asparagus.

The sun beats down and the temperature hovers around 80, but we feel cool, thanks to water flowing in all directions as it splashes down on river rock. The child in us pokes a finger in the water and sticks a toe in.

Then, from just a stone's throw away, an Amtrak train blares its horn. Where are we?

"It's an urban garden!" shouts Kathleen Socolofsky, happily showing off the UC Davis Arboretum's renovated gem: the Arboretum Terrace Garden and Lois Crowe Patio on the east side of the Borders bookstore in downtown Davis.

Tables and chairs — and their umbrellas — invite people to come on in, take a break from shopping and business, and take time to smell the butterfly roses.

This sliver of beauty, wedged between Russell Boulevard, the train tracks and the Davis Commons shopping center, is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, free of charge.

Socolofsky, as arboretum director, is interested in all things green, of course. But this garden represents so much more.

It is the first major piece of GATEways, the university's recently unveiled plan to turn the arboretum into the campus's front door.

The GATE in GATEways stands for Garden, Arts and The Environment. And the arboretum is the common link. "It's a place whose time has come," Socolofsky said last week just before she presided over a rededication ceremony for the Arboretum Terrace Garden.

The ceremony honored retired UC Davis biologists John and Lois Crowe for their gift of two fountains and pergolas for the garden.

Bob Segar, assistant chancellor for campus planning, said "it is a treat to be here, particularly because of the Crowes."

Segar also enjoyed seeing the GATEways plan — which he helped formulate — start to take shape physically and mentally.

"People understand the connection that GATEways can make between the campus and the city," he said.

Indeed, a sign at the entrance to the terrace garden notes the east end of the arboretum "is less than 400 feet from where you're standing."

So, if people like what they see in the terrace garden, the hope is that they will walk 400 feet to see the rest of the arboretum, which runs for 1½ mile along a waterway at the south edge of the main campus. From the arboretum, people can take off in any number of directions to see more of the campus. And, once on the main campus, university officials hope visitors will take time to see academic in action.

Three GATEways are planned: City Arts at the east end, Discovery at the west end, and the University GATEway between them.

The terrace garden is part of the City Arts GATEway, which meanders between downtown and a majority of the campus's arts district: the art and music buildings, ceramic arts studio, Main Theatre and the Wyatt Pavilion Theatre.

The University GATEway would take in Mrak Hall, the King Hall School of Law, the Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center, and the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, and would include such features as Geology, Watershed Sciences and Animal Science gardens, each associated with nearby buildings.

The plan's most ambitious element is the Discovery GATEway, where planners envision the Arboretum Discovery Center and the GATEways Learning Institute. They would be built along Old Davis Road just off Interstate 80 at the south edge of the main campus.

How to get to the Arboretum Terrace Garden and Lois Crowe Patio: From campus, walk to the east end of the arboretum, cross the Davis Commons parking lot and pass through the shopping center. Once in front of the shopping center, walk to the east side of Borders bookstore. If you are walking from downtown or driving from anywhere, the shopping center is at the southwest corner of First Street and Russell Boulevard.