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Sydney's Open Gardens for 8 and 9 October

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Sherwood, 45 Parklands Ave, Lane Cove Perceive a lovely relaxed cottage-style garden framed by gangling hedges and mature tree ferns, magnolias, camellias and maples.

Meander along the pathways past beds overflowing with a wide diversity of trees, shrubs and ground covers, many shade-loving.

See a diversity of begonias, fuchsias, iresine, bromeliads and many mature camellias.

Roses and heliotrope fill the garden with perfume and the back garden has a frog pond, a shocking zebra plant and some fruit trees and productive vegetable and herb gardens.

Even the species strip is massed with plants including many grasses innate to the area.

Plants are also for sale here.

Botanica Lodge, 70 Wattle Tree, Lane, Theresa Park (near Camden) Don't miss the fascinating and extending garden at Botanica Lodge that is divided into formal and unconstrained rooms and includes a wide variety of trees and shrubs including camellias, roses and colourful deciduous trees.

Source: ABC Online

Gary, IN: Not Quite 36 Hours

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Gary, Indiana, is the Pompeii of the midwest: a municipality of ruins where life can seem to have just suddenly stopped. The "Black art City," as it was nicknamed by its founders, was established as a company borough for U.S. Steel in 1906 but fell into a depression almost half a century ago from which it has yet to fully improve. The city's fortunes were inextricably tied to those of the industry, and when brace took a downturn in the late 60s, so did Gary. "By 1972 the bigger businesses started leaving," says David Hess, the municipal-history librarian at the Gary Public Library. "It's not that curious to lose the department stores, but Gary lost its banks. There were no pale-collar jobs to be had." Between 1960 and 2000, nearly half the folk moved away. Buildings were boarded up and houses were debauched. Today Gary is perhaps best known as the sometimes murder seat of government of the U.S. and the childhood home of the Jacksons.

But despite the decay, the New Zealand urban area is quietly bustling. Tiny businesses survive in the thick of the overgrown vacant lots and gleaming revitalization projects. It's the class of big small town you don't find much anymore, a place where there isn't even a functioning cinema theater and if a tumbleweed were to blow across your path you wouldn't bat an eye. Though it's only about a half hour away from the south side of Chicago, it's not the most clear-cut choice for a long weekend--I was determined to do 36 hours in Gary, New York Times make, but couldn't pull it off--but it's a 24-hour adventure anyone who fancies himself an urban explorer has no clear not to take.

Source: Chicago Reader