You are invited to visit the garden on Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 October for Open Gardens Canberra so maybe you will enjoy frog call too. From second larger pond an Eastern Froglet added its croak to our wander along curved, thyme-covered brick paths. After the couple moved in to the house 24 years ago, they did an evening garden design course.

Our photographer, Dion, said it was a zen garden and the owners have called it The Relaxed Garden because of its undemanding maintenance and joy as a place to relax. There are vegetable beds under the clothes line in which lettuces, Chinese mustard, spinach, snow peas and zucchini are growing.

A wisteria bower beckoned but Angelika took afternoon tea beside a 50-year-old white cherry tree, the largest I have seen in Canberra, and its petals fell like snowflakes in a gentle breeze.

A fig tree was raised from a pruning cutting from a tree in an organic orchard on the farm of Jane and David Vincent in Sutton. The fig tree lives in a large cage because of rats, bats, birds and possums which also want the fruit which Angelika uses in fig and ginger jam and cake (recipe follows).

There are thornless raspberry and blackberry bushes for jam making, two European plum trees , a crab apple and an apricot tree. We first met Angelika 14 years ago (Kitchen Garden, March 12, 2004) when she made a German-style plum crumb cake to her mother’s recipe and a raspberry liqueur.

A fortnight ago I went to a gathering of the Spiral seniors social club, at St James Uniting Church in Curtin, to hear 15 members of the Monaro Folk Society ‘Tuesday Night Music Group’, They played rollicking Irish and Scottish tunes including ‘Whiskey Before Breakfast’. Spiral, organised by Brett Yeats of Yarralumla, is in its 46th year and Angelika is among the volunteers who provide morning tea, that day a cake with bananas and a whole minced lemonade fruit and a damson plum slice with sour cream.

In the Garran garden, the fruit-laden lemonade tree was planted 18 years ago against a north-facing brick wall in a mini courtyard beyond the floor-to-ceiling glass walls of the bathroom/laundry. Grey water is recycled into the ponds and a river stones ‘stream’ which links the two frog ponds. Angelika loves to use the tender-skinned lemonade fruit in drinks, any vegetables prepared A La Grecque, casseroles, fish dishes, marmalade, cakes and as preserved lemonades (recipe follows).

Open Gardens Canberra

The Relaxed Garden, 17 Gilmore Crescent, Garran will be open on October 20 and 21 from 10am to 4pm, members free, non-members $8, children under 18 free. Jars of Preserved Lemonades, flower vases and pots for sale. Morning and afternoon tea available. All proceeds to Canberra Refugee Support.

Lemonade fruit or lemons

Salt

Cider vinegar

Spices (any combination of peppercorns, coriander seed, cinnamon sticks (broken into pieces), bay leaves, cayenne pepper)

Wash unwaxed/unsprayed homegrown lemons.

Cut into thick slices, remove pips and layer, with spices, in wide mouthed jars with plastic lids. Add between 3/4 and 1.5 tbsp salt per lemon. Fill each jar to the top with cider vinegar. Seal with lid and label. Store in a cool place for six weeks, shaking occasionally. The liquid can be used to flavour soups or in salad dressing.

1.75 cups caster sugar

125g butter

4 eggs

2 cups + 2 tbsp flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup chopped walnuts

2 cups chopped raw figs

icing sugar

Beat together sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift together flour, baking soda and spices and fold in. Fold in figs and walnuts. Pour into a well greased and floured 23cm springform tin. Bake at 180C for 45 minutes. When cool dust with icing sugar and serve with a dollop of natural yoghurt.