I walked by on Friday morning, as council workers tore plants out of their planters and pots, and tossed them into the back of their trucks.

They plant those flowers, take them out, plant them, erect new planters, take them away, without any real connection to what’s going on with the plants – they seem pretty healthy. Still, those planters have been strange from the moment they appeared.

I walked past later, at about midnight, and a fence had been erected around the Taylor Square public toilet. I peeked over the top, and this is what I saw.

I’m pretty sure it’s Dale Miles’s Underworld (the latest in the Taylor Square Plinth project – we blogged about Louisa Dawson’s work in October). He’s shown widely since graduating from the National Art School several years ago – see more here.

He says it’s a response:

to the mysteriousness of the shape of the space enclosed by the entrance fence and the two descending staircases. It is the mystery of the void inverted, the spider exiting its funnel.

The original idea is this. More pictures to come.

A year ago our friends Blake and Alexis showed you how to build an inner city aquarium. Well, if you’re following their instructions, you might need to hit the brakes. Here’s what Blake had to say…

We had to abandon the fish tank recently due to health concerns.

The poor buggers kept getting sick. We figured it was the water quality or pH, so we did a few tests, which were inconclusive.

Even with water conditioners and fish medicine, they kept dying. So, despite the advice from the aquarium guy to “Just keep buying more fish,” we eventually decided it would be best to to fill up the old shipping crate with soil and focus on the creation of life rather than death.

So far, we’ve been much more successful with garlic chives than with goldfish.

True, this is no ‘vertical garden’. There won’t be any eating from this bio-wall. If anything, it’s most likely eating into the walls of its host, the old Brackenbury & Austin warehouse on the corner of Wilshire and Devonshire Streets, Surry Hills, just up from the Bourke Street Bakery.

This is far from technologically based solutions to greening the city. It’s old school, the paint’s decomposing a rusty orange, the walls are sprouting all manner of ivy and even small trees. There are mandalas and Nepalese prayer flags, even a squiggly painted ‘Respect’ on the wall. And at some point in the distant past, it looks as though some of the plants may have sprouted from pots at the front door.

Looks like they’re struggling to fill the front space, too. There’s a sign out the front advertising it as a potential pop-up shop.

In a neat inversion of the Situationist slogan (“Beneath the paving stones, the beach!”), hidden above the cars is a native rooftop garden.

Embarkation Park (or as Malcolm Turnbull’s dog apparently calls it, Bark Park) has been around for a few decades, and the garden extends from small shrubs to larger native trees. It’s an ‘intensive’ type green roof, built on a layered system, according to this report for the council. It’s an off-leash park and it’s open between sunrise and sunset.

According to this Navy newsletter, it’s a “known shooting gallery.” It’s also a hotspot for gay cruising. But with a spectacular view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Sydney Opera House and the rest of the city skyline, it’s also one of the best vantage points for New Year’s Eve fireworks and other harbourside celebrations.

So honours for the first Woolloomooloo green rooftop may actually go to the top of this Navy car park.

A little bit of research shows an interesting history.

The 32 houses were built in 1874-75 in three terraces to form a triangle, with a common area in the middle. Kids used to play, clothes-lines were erected, neighbourhood parties were held here. Then in the 1960s, individual houses were sold and the common area became a place to park cars and dump trash.

In 1973, the Rose Terrace Society was formed to fight against the owner who wanted to build a multi-storeyed building on the site. The then Lord Mayor of Sydney, Leo Port, came to the rescue. The owner was defeated and the common area was given back to the people as a community garden. A Local Citizens Committee was established to care for and maintain the garden with a grant of $5200.

According to the Paddington Paper (official newsletter of the Paddington Society), in April 2009:

The Rose Terrace garden park has been scooped out clean for a complete renewal. City of Sydney has worked with residents and landscape specialists to come up with a new look for this park…

Pulling up the tar from the old road surface has revealed treasures and rubbish. It seems 100 years ago, road base was just small rocks and anything that would go on top of the sand.

Digging struck treasure too. The sandstone gutter that originally went with the sandstone curb saw daylight for the first time in many years. The sympathetic landscapers are preserving and re-seating it ready to go along side the new tarred surface.

Well, it is all complete and looking lovely in the spring time.

It’s a garden, but quite a different one. This one, at 306 Palmer Street, has been owned by the council for years. It used to be called the Darlinghurst Children’s Garden.

Here’s a pic from the late ’70s from Sydney council’s archives, and another taken this week.

It’s hard to tell what the garden was like for the three children in that photo. Between the picket fence, the flares and the black and white picture, there’s not much green. But whatever the case, it’s not as friendly now.

The council’s been wondering what to do with the patch of land for years. Seven years ago, before South Sydney Council was amalgamated into the City of Sydney Council, they deliberated on the garden at Erskineville Town Hall.

Now it’s fenced in, but seemingly well maintained – couldn’t it be a garden in the meantime?

In late July, Housing NSW, which owns the site, gave Greening Woolloomooloo five days to clear out their gardens. The gardeners have had a slight reprieve though, housing minister David Borger said he’s talking to Sydney council to find another site for the garden.

But McElhone Street has a couple of lovely surprises on the side.

The laneway garden above is on Windeyer Street.

This one’s at the end of Rae Place.

These gardens remind us a lot of this one in Thomson Street.

Street proud residents, lane way love.