These true "community gardens" do exist in a few locations around Australia. Dedicated volunteers keep them planted, mulched, fed and watered. Others pick and eat. The favourite crops seem to be salad greens of various kinds, parsley, peas (which I suspect passing kids eat straight from the pod), snow peas, broccoli (the varieties that produce one main flowering stem then many smaller ones) and broccollini. All these are vegetables that are visible, easily picked, with no digging needed, and are easy and clean to carry home. Pop a handful of snowpeas and a head of broccoli in your handbag or pocket.

In the places where they have been grown they seem to have made a marked difference to the amount of fruit and vegetables the local families eat, not just because it's free but because freshly picked broccoli is another beast entirely from elderly supermarket stuff. The lettuce, mizuna, mitsuba and parsley and other "greens" (even when some of them are red) are in your face, come and pick me tempters that may lure a passer by into envisaging a salad to go with that night's planned pizza or lasagne.

Anecdotally, there is surprisingly little vandalism. Ornamental public gardens may be targeted, but edibles ones are less likely to be trashed. Subconsciously, humans, especially young humans, respect food.

Is it possible to institute such gardens in Canberra on a small or large scale? Do some already exist? Canberra has so much spare space, especially in the older suburbs with generously wide footpaths, big enough for both feet and gardens. And, yes, many of our roads are lined with trees but most are deciduous, leaving lovely sunlight for winter gardens of broccoli, cauliflower and lettuce.

Even shady footpaths may get three or four hours of sunlight on the soil, enough to grow many vegetables. They'd need to be grown in above-ground beds through, as large trees tend to take up the available ground space with roots that forage for water and nutrients. Above-ground beds need more water – but they are still possible.

Legal? I've no idea. Is it legal to start a garden on public land? Is it legal to harvest the tucker from it? If it isn't, would it be difficult to make it so?

Private help-yourself gardens are a bit more tricky. If someone chokes on a slug hidden in the cabbage, can you be sued? But at some point, surely, generosity should triumph over regulation?

I've just come back from South Australia where I visited a school garden tended by the pupils who use the produce in their cooking lessons. They also take home surplus produce. Although technically it belongs to the kids – and is gloriously adorned with dragons, cabins and kids' art – the whole project is guided and much of the work done by adult volunteers. But if they retired from the project I suspect it would still survive as it is now at a stage where it is reasonably easily replenished and maintained.

Street-side community gardens in Canberra would need volunteers too. And dedication. And generosity. But as Shakespeare said of mercy – which had a slightly different meaning back then, "… it blesseth him that gives and him that takes". Gardens of vegetables to share with all would be worth the giving and the taking.

And maybe … perhaps … just possible.

The joy of celery

In summer it becomes tough unless you water it, mulch it, or even, in very hot, dry times or climates, wrap it in newspaper tied with string to blanch it and keep it straight and soft and straight stemmed. But in winter celery comes into its own.

It's one of those cut and come again vegetable, like the magic pudding. The more you cut – and eat and feed and water and mulch – the more you can harvest. Eat it straight from the garden; use the leaves well chopped in soups and stews and casseroles, or even add some to a pot of mashed potatoes for a delicious celery tang and green flecks. Make a salad of chopped celery, chopped winter apples and perhaps a scattering of walnuts or a little feta or blue cheese and the smallest necessary amount of vinaigrette dressing.

The trick with celery is lots. Lots of feeding, lots of water, lots of picking or the outer stems turn tough. Though if they do you can still juice them – the chooks will like the residue – or turn them into soup. But grow lots, too. Even if you don't blanch it, your home-grown celery will have far more flavour than shop-bought celery and you'll discover why celery is used so much in French, Cajun and Creole cooking. And if you do blanch it, you will find a soft succulence that rivals asparagus.

And it is good for you, which I am trying to remember as I force myself to use the celery in the fridge at the moment, which is not home-grown because I didn't put in lots. Or not lots enough.

Next year, if we have the water, and that water is safe to use, I will plant several rows. Meanwhile, I'll dream of home-grown celery. And add a bit more lemon and garlic to flavour the celery in the fridge. Or give it to the chooks who will eat it despite its blandness, and pick myself a giant bunch of home-grown celery instead.

The last weekend visitors have left a mostly uneaten box of toasted muesli in the cupboard. Well, totally uneaten actually – they had omelets and extremely good toast instead. So I either give the muesli to the chooks or, once again, make muesli squares.

Muesli squares

200g butter
2 tbsp golden syrup or honey
1 cup toasted muesli
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup plain flour – wholemeal or a mixture of grains is best
¾ cup ground almonds or hazelnuts
1 cup softish dried apricots, finely chopped
1 egg

Line a baking tray with baking paper. Melt butter and syrup or honey. Add other ingredients. Mix well. Spread into the baking dish and bake at 200C for about 30 minutes or till firm on top. Cool in the tin. Cut into squares and keep in a sealed container, out of the fridge for two or three days or in the fridge for up to a fortnight, as long as the apricot bits don't start to grow whiskers.

Smoked salmon and ricotta cake

A different lot of guests came with smoked salmon, which also remained uneaten when they left full of soup, bread and potato fritters. We've been on a smoked salmon kick ever since, eating it many ways. But this is a good warm winter one. You can put it into a crust and call it quiche, but it is equally good – or better – without.

150g ricotta cheese
1 cup sour cream
100g smoked salmon or smoked trout
1 bunch chives, chopped
2 tbsp dill, fresh, chopped (but if you don't have any you can still make this recipe)
4 large eggs

Optional: halved cherry tomatoes to place on top

Mix all together well. Scrape into a greased baking dish. Arrange the tomatoes on the top if you have any to hand. Bake at 200C for about 30 minutes or until firm in the middle. Eat hot. Store overnight in a sealed container in the fridge, but it is much better served at once, warm, with salad.

This week I am

* snaffling the last of the pomegranates before the birds get into them;

* trying to be patient until the first of the oranges ripen;

* marvelling at a million tree dahlia blooms – give or take a few thousand – and hoping the really heavy frosts stay away till we've enjoyed them for another week or two;

* watching the lyrebird scratch up the first of the raked leaves, looking a bit like a cross between anorexic peacocks and the Road Runner. You only get gorgeous lyrebirds in carefully selected photos mostly they look a bit ungainly and plain silly;

* picking parsley, parsley, parsley … ; and

* mulching the young fruit trees with the fallen leaves of old ones – at least till the lyrebirds scrape them away.