Three tricks to keep your relationship happy and strong: Get gorgeous: Everyone knows a couple where one person looks trim, taut and terrific, and the other has let themselves go physically or just doesn’t pay attention to their grooming. This is dangerous territory — it’s difficult to feel attracted to someone who doesn’t seem to […]

Question I bought some white radish from the supermarket, I have never seen it before. Can you please give me some ideas on how to eat it? It looks like a big white carrot. J. Petrolo, Warranwood, Vic Answer White radish is also known as daikon (a Japanese word meaning “large root”) and is a […]

Hanging baskets are a cheat’s way to get early flowers. Baskets heat up faster than soil in the ground and you can hang them over nice hot paving, beside brick walls or on warm patios too. In fact you can REALLY cheat and buy your flowers already blooming – just bung them in the basket […]

Chokoes are a no-fail veg. Starve them, forget them, and they’ll still give you an autumn filled with so much fruit you’ll be pestering the neighbors to take some and looking up recipes for choko chutney, choko pie, choko and ginger jam (which isn’t bad, actually). My favourite way of eating chokoes depends on growing […]

Question What is quince? Answer Quinces are in season at the moment so now’s the time to make the most of this unbelievably delicious fruit. Some people draw breath at the long cooking times but if ever “good things come to he who waits” had credence, it’s with the quince. Take one hard, yellow-green, nondescript, […]

Question Which part of the lemon grass do you use or do you use all of it? Answer A tall, clumping, sharp-edged aromatic tropical grass that both smells and tastes of lemon, lemon grass comes by its English name naturally. It arrived in our kitchens by way of Southeast Asia, where it is an essential […]

Question An english recipe I have calls for crème fraîche, I do not know what this is and where do I buy it? Answer Crème fraîche, a French variation of sour cream, is a mildly acidic, high fat, slightly nutty tasting thick cream. Before dairy products were first pasteurised, crème fraîche developed naturally when the […]

The past, for many, is a place viewed with misty-eyed romanticism, a place where memories are happily tinted by warmth, love and respect. For Today show co-host Tracy Grimshaw, 44, the past is all of that, but it is also a place that resonates with pain, sadness and the lingering torment of opportunities lost. Like […]

When she turned off the ignition that evening, Barbara Havers remained inside the Mini, once again listening disconsolately to its sputtering engine. She rested her head on the steering wheel. She was knackered. Odd to think that spending hours upon hours on computers and telephones was more exhausting than hoofing round London to track down […]

Turn those horrible stretches of concrete out the back or front of the house into flowers and greenery with these six tricks to make your balcony flourish.