The birds have names, Eggbert, Jasmine and, Andrew's choice, Peri (for Peri Peri chicken) and Butter! They are much loved pets and their first eggs should be laid in spring, however they were chosen for their placid, friendly nature and small size. They scratch around the yard, use a dust bath and their straw and manure goes into the compost heap.

Christine and Andrew have been living in a townhouse complex in Isabella Plains for two years. A pair of Border Collies have run of the main yard but, in a side garden, Andrew has built a gated, raised U-shaped series of beds called "Christine's Veggie Patch". Gardening tools are kept in an old letterbox attached to the vegie patch frame. The 3m x 3m construction was made from pine sleepers on top of an existing concrete slab, lined with plastic and the beds are filled with layers of garden soil, straw and compost. A wide plastic pipe with holes and a lid is a moveable worm tub from Christine's cousin-in-law Josh Broomfield. Vegie scraps are placed in it daily to feed the worms and the worms enrich the soil.

The first harvest has been very successful, producing a huge amount of food in such a small space. Half of the vegetables were raised from seed and the remainder as seedlings from Bunnings, mostly the Food for Life range. The favourite edible was sweet corn grown from seeds and it was the sweetest Christine has ever tasted. The most successful chilli was a Jalapeno that was mild and good to use in stir fries, pizzas and casseroles. Christine has preserved a variety of chillies in oil and the couple uses the infused oil in dishes as well as the chillies and jars have been given to family members.

The best tomato was the Lollipop cherry variety and Christine has saved seed from it for next season. Last of the May tomatoes have been strung together and are hanging under the eaves to ripen more before they are turned into green (and red) tomato pickles made to a recipe from Christine's grandma. It was childhood memories of her grandma's garden in Isaacs with its purple beans, tomatoes and mint as well as her Dad's garden in Chisholm that stirred Christine's interest in growing edibles. She likes the fun of growing vegetables and also not having to buy herbs from the shops and only using part of the bunch before the remainder wilted.

Recently peas, purple cauliflower and Brussels sprouts were planted, neither of which Christine has grown previously. She is keen on purple vegetables because they bring colour to the garden and are not as commonly found in supermarkets. She likes to test what works and what she will continue to grow in the future. It is all still an experiment.

Among carrots, capsicums and an asparagus patch corner, a highlight plant has been the beetroot, grown beside vibrant red chard and a bounteous eggplant with purple and white striped miniature fruit. The beetroot has dark red and green foliage and Christine has been using a recipe from Zita Steyn's book "Good Better Green" (Quadrille/Hardie Grant. 2016) to make broccoli and beetroot greens pie. The author is a nutritional chef who trained at the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York and returned to London to found Food Fights with its mission to incorporate healthy food into everyday life and greens in every meal.

Christine said she had not made homemade pastry before and the pie recipe used wholemeal flour and was delicious. The beetroot greens were great, very similar to spinach and they went well with the broccoli. The beautiful big beetroot in our photo was roasted and it was the sweetest beet Christine had every tried. It was very marbled and lighter in colour, inside, than she expected.

Cauliflower is blitzed to resemble couscous and stir fried with kale, and Brussels sprouts are combined with leeks in a potato cake. An ingredient in the beetroot greens pie is ras al hanout, a spice mix from North Africa that contains more than twenty spices. It is available online from Herbie's Spices ($9.40 for 40g) and Ian 'Herbie' Hemphill says it is great four couscous and tagines and to sprinkle on chicken or fish before cooking.

Susan Parsons is a Canberra writer.