BALGOWLAH HEIGHTS PUBLIC SCHOOL

One of the first initiatives Balgowlah Heights Public School introduced as part of the Live Life Well program, which promotes healthy lifestyles, was to start a vegetable garden.

Nice place, but why should the Governor get to live there?

A Government House open for all would make a top-notch attraction.

On the city's roofs, keepers get that swarm and buzzy feeling

In Paris they've had them for centuries, and now Melbourne is discovering high-rise hives, writes John Bailey.

East & Inner City

Bellevue Hill

CALENDAR

AUTUMN is upon us, that glorious season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, so take stock of what's happening in the garden and prepare for the cooler months ahead, writes Denise Gadd.

All set for a sail

With the hard work done, this couple is moving on, writes Judy Barouch.

Mourning becomes her

IT'S 9.30, a chilly Monday morning, and the artist, singer, orator, teacher, actor, writer and avid cycling commuter Martha McDonald has pedalled from Flemington to her studio in an abandoned high school at Southbank. She's feeling rushed and out of sorts but is trying not to show it, by talking at an apologetic American-accented gallop as she locks her bike to a street parking sign. "I meant to be here earlier ... I'm not a morning person ... I should have warned you ... I overslept ... I ..." She's unaccustomed to fluster; that's obvious, and soon enough we see why.

Bilgola

At Bilgola, on the northern beaches peninsula, the market slowed during the second half of last year but it has picked up since Christmas, with agents reporting increased buyer activity and good sales.

Pressday will keep the Waller show rolling

THE Chris Waller phenomenon looks certain to continue at Rosehill Gardens, perhaps featuring a form reversal by Pressday in the Hobartville, on a day promising great turf action in two states.

THE KITCHEN GARDEN

LEAFY GREENS Flavour, texture and good looks . . . What more do you need?

SEA VIEWS

$470,000-$530,000 MCCRAE 1 Fairway Crescent Private sale Agent Hocking Stuart, 5985 9333

Reigns of the boundary riders

RORY Costelloe recalls catching lizards and frogs aged 12 in the market gardens outside Cheltenham in 1972 when it was one of Melbourne's fringe suburbs.

Nurture with nature

Helping others in their yards is a wonderful way to cultivate happiness, writes CHERYL MADDOCKS.

Randwick's record-beater

Rathven, a tightly held circa-1887 Randwick residence, has been listed for March 17 auction. The six-bedroom, six-bathroom Italianate colonial villa sits on a 2117 sq m St Marks Road block. The grounds come with an 18-metre pool, a spa and a tennis court. It was built by the colonial carpenter George Raffan on land that extended to the bottom of Glebe Gully, with the gardens featuring Norfolk Island pines, huge bamboos and two Port Jackson fig trees. After his arrival from Scotland in 1874, Raffan had a shop on Bridge Street near the Tank Stream. Raffan pioneered the cement industry and became a pastoralist, owning Lue and Cooyal stations at Mudgee. After its 1927 sale by Dr Abraham M. Loewenthal, Rathven operated as a boarding school for Sydney Grammar School until 1976. It was heritage listed in 1979 by planning minister Paul Landa after 72 residential apartments were proposed for the site. It last traded, derelict, in 1982 for $410,000 when bought by gastroenterologist Dr Terry Bolin and his wife, Robin. It's been listed through Donna Mauthner and Michael Finger at Ray White Double Bay, who should easily smash the Randwick record, which stands at $5.3 million, when the residence on 569 sq m of the retired Swans coach Paul Roos and his wife, Tami, sold last year.

METRO PICKS

Artist Garden

A building with good bones

ARCHITECTS RotheLowman were excited when they got the brief to design the Albert Tower in South Melbourne. Private developers Carter Group and Perri Projects wanted something different that would lead the market.

Fresh Prince has swell air

Tradition has made way for tanned youngsters, writes Michael Harden.

COVER PROPERTY

ERSKINEVILLE 47 AMY STREET About $1.7 million

Young and the freshness

Isabella Bliss, 12, who won Junior MasterChef last year, knows her shallots from her shortbread. And she has a thing or two to say about healthy food.

Making the most of the coast you've got

SEASIDE GARDENERS DO WELL TO TAKE THEIR LEAD FROM THEIR SURROUNDS.

Smart gardening, roots and all

WICKING BEDS MAKE FOR A WATER-EFFICIENT GARDEN.

The Gallery

Best Australian Gardens & Landscapes Edited by Gary Takle Think Publishing, rrp $39.95

YOU'LL LOVE IT

Glenn Bartlett, Director Thomson Real Estate

DIG IT

OUT AND ABOUT

Dip into the riches

Frolic for free in the neighbourhood of millionaires, writes BRUCE ELDER.

East & Inner City

Bondi Beach

Buzz off

To bee or not to bee ... that is the question for Fenella Souter when she finds two nests in her inner-city backyard. And while her first instinct is to be rid of them, it's a bitter-sweet goodbye.

Etc

INDIGENOUS RIGHTS

A delight to demolish

There are all sorts of appalling real estate euphemisms I could use to describe 16 Loch Street, Freshwater: "family friendly" is one of them; "worst house in the best street" is another; then there is - and I can't believe I'm about to write this - "renovator's delight".

Above and beyond

Prices for Hyde Park penthouses are expected to scale new heights, writes Chris Pearson.

Bikies, crime rings infiltrate defence bases

GAPING holes in the security of Australia's defence bases are leaving them exposed to infiltration by organised criminals, bikie groups and terrorists.

Bikies infiltrate defence bases

GAPING holes in the security of Australia's defence bases are leaving them exposed to infiltration by organised criminals, bikie groups and terrorists.

THE KITCHEN GARDEN

PEACHES It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that cling ...

The glory of Zeffirelli

IT'S astonishing to think that Franco Zeffirelli turned 88 on February 12. The man who has been a byword for the spectacular in opera and theatre, and who has the rare gift of recreating theatrical and operatic efforts in film without losing their potency, has always seemed like the eternal sprite of directorial invention. Now, we have a gorgeous book ��� bigger than most coffee tables ��� called simply Zeffirelli: The Complete Works, a visual feast of sumptuous pictures.

Verdant and vertical

CATHERINE KEENAN meets botanist Patrick Blanc, the Frenchman behind the hanging gardens of Broadway.

Landing in the lap of luxury

$3.75 million-plus SOUTH YARRA 3/112-116 Leopold Street Agent RT Edgar, 9826 1000 Auction Noon, February 26 Melway 2L D4

SUNDAY LUNCH LAVANDULA, SHEPHERDS FLAT

WANDER around Lavandula Swiss Italian Farm and chances are you will meet Flora MacDonald the cheeky terrier, Barbarella the ginger cat, two donkeys (Ferdinand and Theodora) and Pascal the pony.

Sparingly, cautiously, ill-advisedly

Words, I have decided, are the greatest problem in writing. Words always get in the way of what you are trying to say. As I write this now I am groping for the right words, stumbling over them, misspelling them, cursing them. I wish I could write without them, they are so pesky, elusive and wilful. They seem to rise out of the screen like black magic and push their way into my sentences without being invited. Editors and teachers of writing always urge cutting as a way of improving prose. Sometimes I think if I could just cut out words

Life in the Victorian era

Far from the bustle of Bryon Bay, Angie Schiavone retreats to a country manor with manners.

Oh, what a lovely surprise

$770,000 - $830,000 ROSANNA 23 Douglas Street Auction 11am, March 5 Agent Miles Real Estate, 459 5666 Melway 32 A1

Open gallery

JESS MacNEIL

Judge rules Botanic Gardens can evict bat colony

JUSTICE Dennis Cowdroy dismissed a challenge in the Federal Court yesterday to the relocation of a colony of flying foxes from the Botanic Gardens.

Married with kids

This year's Mardi Gras parade is all about nuptials and welcoming families. By Paul Chai.

Readers less interested in lads' mags, fishing and TV soaps

IF WHAT we read reflects what we like to do, then more Australians now want to marry, be healthy and follow football than did a year ago.

Mixed bag for magazine readers

IF WHAT we read reflects what we like to do, more Australians now want to marry, be healthy and follow football than they did a year ago. They also want to cook better, improve their gardens, make better parents and look hotter.

COVER PROPERTY

BRONTE 26 BROWN STREET $3.3 million+

La Stupenda gets royal farewell at Westminster

THE soaring, haunting sound of the "most glorious, most beautiful voice to be heard anywhere in the world" was heard in Westminster Abbey overnight as Europe's arts luminaries joined British royalty to farewell Dame Joan Sutherland.

La Stupenda's royal farewell

THE soaring, haunting sound of the "most glorious, most beautiful voice to be heard anywhere in the world" was heard in Westminster Abbey overnight as Europe's arts luminaries joined British royalty to farewell Dame Joan Sutherland.

Connect the plots

A new website is seeking landowners who want to share the passion, writes Simon Webster.

An opportunity missed on mining super tax

Ever had that sinking feeling that you've been led up the garden path, taken for a ride and been had a right royal lend of, all at the same time?

COVER PROPERTY

LILYFIELD 14 LEYS AVENUE About $1.4 million

Spirit of the past

'WITHOUT a doubt, there's a ghost in this house," says Sue Ferguson, who seems a practical sort of woman not prone to fabricating tales. "There's a noise that happens every morning at 2.50. It's in our bedroom behind the cupboard," she says, likening it to someone stepping on a creaky floorboard. "Sometimes the cupboard door pops open and we reckon it's Charlie Turner getting up and going to work."

Gentleman's club gets leafy embrace

Joyce Hall, Mavis Chatwin and Margaret Tennant hug an 1890s plane tree planted at The Melbourne Club to quell revelry. THE Melbourne Club (above) became an unlikely venue for tree-huggers yesterday as visitors to its open garden day checked the girth of the club's most majestic plane tree. Margaret Hawkins, Joyce Hall, Margaret Tennant and Mavis Chatwin travelled from Mount Waverley to visit the garden, which was open to the public as part of Australia's Open Garden Scheme. The tree ��� now on the National Trust's historic register ��� and two others were planted in the 1890s. Club legend has it that they were designed to quell any prospect of unseemly revelry. Following a club ball in 1895, resident members planted them to prevent the erection of marquees in the hope that this would also prevent noisy partying.

Time to rip it up in St Kilda

Space is at a premium as a record crowd joins in the fabled festival. Karl Quinn reports.

Do yourself a flavour: restaurants are dishing up home-grown harvests

A growing trend among eateries of producing their own food, in their own gardens, adds delicious new meaning to the idea of 'fresh' and 'local'. John Mangan reports.

EIGHT DAYS

Your one-stop guide to the week ahead. By Annie Stevens and Dylan Rainforth

Designing for all ages and life stages

As owners' years advance, a house must be able to keep up, writes Kate Robertson.

Add a dash of daring

$1.5 million-plus SOUTH YARRA 7 Tivoli Road Auction Noon, February 26 Agent Kay & Burton, 9820 1111 Melway 58 F3

2/127 Hall Street, Bondi Beach

2/127 Hall Street, Bondi Beach About $1.3 million Built 2007 Size 137 sq m (internal); 137 sq m (external); 35 sq m (garage) Strata levy $1093 a quarter Inspect Sat and Thu, noon-12.45pm Auction February 26 Agent McGrath Eastern Suburbs, 0414 549 966 or 9386 3186

Forage and feast

When things turn gloomy at the beach, Clare Barry sets out on a quest to find fresh local produce.

Faiths rule on sex from staffroom to bedroom

Australia's religious organisations fight for the right to discriminate, writes David Marr.

TOMATOES

From Sweet Bite to Black Russian, there's a variety for any taste.

The boys from Oz

It's 40 years since Richard Neville, Jim Anderson and Felix Dennis's swinging '60s mix of sex, psychedelia and schoolchildren made them counterculture heroes, writes STEVE MEACHAM.

PEACE AND PLAY

$660,000-$685,000 RIDDELLS CREEK 207 Campbell Road Private sale Agent Raine & Horne, 5428 4007

Interiors guru has designs on $10 million for botanic beauty

INTERIOR designer Melissa de Campo can expect about $10 million from the sale of a 1930s house designed by architect Marcus Martin metres from the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Kellie Hush

Q: In the morning, I often pop out the front in my pyjamas to water the garden. I figure no one is out of bed yet to see me but my husband thinks it is totally inappropriate. Is it?

Bawdy sex romp amid genteel setting

LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER, RATING: 2.5/5 Australian Shakespeare Company Rippon Lea House and Garden; until March 17. Warning: Nudity.

Spiegeltent back for nights of balmy glamour

THE Arts Centre precinct comes alive from this weekend with the glamour of the 1930s.

Wheels in motion to lift cycle ban

THORNBURY resident Ronan MacEwan convinced British comedian Stephen Fry to tour Melbourne via social media last year. This year he has turned his attention locally, inviting people on Facebook to protest against the Carlton Gardens bike ban.

A vision inmagenta

Spring heralds a riot of colour in cooler-climate regions such as the Blue Mountains, writes Bruce Elder.

Autumn

This country's European settlers dreamt of England and turned those dreams into willows weeping into creeks and rivers, stands of elegant poplars

Pay TV - Wednesday, February 16

Selling Houses Australia Extreme Travel Madness: Spain Location, Location, Location

Spring

Nothing is as beautiful as spring in Australia, when the bush, usually a drab grey-green, comes alive with flowering gums and the desert areas, particularly in Western Australia and South Australia, look as though some secretive gardener has planted hectares of brightly coloured natives. Think only of the stands of red and white bottlebrushes; the splashes of gold of the flowering wattles; the white flannel flowers blooming along the coast; the waratahs and Gymea lilies and, in Western Australia, the red and green kangaroo paw and wisteria.

Critic's view - Saturday, February 12

AFL: NAB Cup Gardening Australia Rage The Howard Years

JOHN HAJEK

The drought generation is shocked and surprised when the heavens open.

Life in Wisteria Lane, where others choose your curtains

Barry O'Farrell has indicated that if the Coalition wins it will step back from Labor's policies of urban consolidation and cut the number of new dwellings to be contained within Sydney's existing footprint from 70 per cent to 50 per cent.

An armed soldier ordered us to get out

AT LEAST they were polite. When our taxi ran into the checkpoint in the well-to-do Cairo neighbourhood of Garden City about 9.50pm on Sunday, the serious faces of the men who took our passports suggested this might take a while.

A place of enchantment and resilience, changed forever

Two years after Black Saturday, the memories are still raw.

STC greats forgotten as club passes away with barely a whimper

The Sydney Turf Club ended in a blaze of Honest Lies at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday. For an outfit that has done so much for the racing industry it went out on a negative note. Hardy any public fanfare, just an in-house celebration at the end of the day with nothing to celebrate the greats: administrators including Sir Clyde Kennedy, George Ryder, Tom Kennedy, Jim Fleming and Graeme Pash. Lesser lights, perhaps, like Don Storey, whose push for fillies' and mares' events made the Coolmore one of the outstanding races made a worthwhile contribution. Employees Pat Parker, John Nicholson, Lindsay Murphy, Billy Dale, Larry Lovric, John Jeffs, and Michael Kenny did the STC proud. Kenny, of course, was the collateral damage for the Australian Jockey Club- STC merger. Sorry to see Judy Foley, an STC director, go. Of course, the selection panel for the new outfit didn't figure the women candidates were good enough. Alas, it was the same boof-headed, male-chauvinist logic applied when the AJC wouldn't grant women a licence to train or be jockeys. Ironic, too, that Kenny, who, with his weight of experience, possibly did more for the merger than anyone, was wiped. Maybe he was too forthright. Remember the quote regarding the new honorary board being paid? It went along the lines of "You don't get men like Tom Kennedy and Jim Fleming for nothing these days". Prophetic. Anyway, one old hack in the grandstand, as Honest Lies went past the post, raised a thought and an imaginary glass to those who have enriched his past half-century.Goodonya.

Saturday February 12 - tv previews

Gardening Australia ABC1, 6.30pm Rage ABC1, 11.55pm The Howard Years ABC News 24, 8pm

Giving your waste the full treatment

HOME OWNERS IN UNSEWERED AREAS CAN CHOOSE GREENER SYSTEMS THAN SEPTICS.

Best Streets

1 Fairy Street

PICK OF THE DAY - SATURDAY FEBRUARY 12

Rating: 3/5

Garden state

Vegie plots strike a primal chord, writes STEVE MANFREDI.

Hidden slice of lakeside heaven

$1.75 million LEOPOLD 185 Brinsmead Lane Private sale Agent Kerleys Coastal Real Estate, 5256 2255

Garden-variety noise pollution

A tenant named Sonia called me on James Valentine's show on 702 ABC last week to complain about a resident who has taken over her block's common property garden and works in it, noisily, every day from 8am.

From bold modernist visions, a future built on hope

IN THE optimistic dawn of post-war Australia, modernism began to show its face in some unlikely places. On a Mornington Peninsula still dominated by bush, innovative and eye-catching houses were peeking out from among the tea-trees, evidence of a new design approach that would change the way we live.

A grass and a half

Replace the lawn with native lomandras and you can throw away the mower, writes CHERYL MADDOCKS.

Column 8

"The question asked by Brad Stringer (Column 8, Wednesday) about the scanner at the airport could possibly be answered by the security personnel who confiscated a garden hose nozzle (still in its wrapper) from my husband recently," writes Robyn Ingram, of Cremorne. "Perhaps there's something about hands in pockets and hose in packets that they consider dangerous."

Free

OPEN GARDEN

Hot woks and pho

Terry Durack and Jill Dupleix take a culinary journey to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Reap what you sow

IN TIMES of economic hardship, people turn to growing their own vegetables to cope with food shortages and rationing. In the Depression and the First and Second World Wars private gardens and public parks in the US, Britain, Canada and Germany were turned into food gardens to help the war effort and also boost morale among citizens.

SUNDAY LUNCH

GREEN OLIVE AT RED HILL Green Olive at Red Hill, 1180 Mornington Flinders Road, Red Hill, 5989 2992

The ball's in your court

$3.7 million-plus CAMBERWELL 31 Canterbury Road Auction 3.30pm, February 19 Agent Marshall White, 9822 9999 Melway 46 A10

THE KITCHEN GARDEN

SWEET HERBS A versatile bunch brings out the best in everything.

Shop then drop ... just upstairs

$349,950-plus GARDEN STREET APARTMENTS 20 Garden Street, South Yarra Private sale Agent Castran Gilbert, 9827 1177 Melway 2L K7

OUT AND ABOUT

SWING THAT THING

Nautical touches sure to be a lure for old sea dogs

OLD salts forced to live on dry land could love a prow-shaped house on the water's edge at Paynesville, which comes with a deep-water jetty at the bottom of the garden.

Next weekend

THE WILD DUCK

Make stylish living your mission

$800,000-$870,000 BENTLEIGH 16 Vunabere Avenue Auction 1pm, February 26 Agent Buxton, 9563 9933 Melway 77 B2