Her interest in growing fruit and vegetables came from her parents as orchards and vegetable gardens were the only way farming families had access to fresh produce. As a child, her father grew vegetables and he sold them to the local travelling greengrocer.

Three years ago in Yass, the pair started changing plants over to those that could survive without water for more than eight weeks in high heat and had a temperature tolerance of 60C, particularly Mediterranean plants and our Australian natives. Fleur has been impressed by the Native Plant Project (nativeplantproject.com.au).

The family's Christmas task (and treat) was building a large compost heap. Reading The Land Gardeners by Elworthy and Courtauld and Charles Massy's Call of the Reed Warbler made Fleur even more aware of the need to preserve and enhance our soils to enable her to grow good vegetables which, in turn, are linked to health benefits.

Along with gardening, Fleur explores the world on her feet. She has won The Canberra Times 10km, half marathon and marathon races and is currently training on the hills around Canberra for the Blue Mountains Six Foot Track Marathon - a long time fundraiser for Rural Bushfire Volunteers.

At home their current crops include eggplant and tomatoes which Fleur uses to make Michael Brice's Mum's tomato relish - she worked with Michael in the ACT Government where he headed up the Urban Treescapes Unit for 20 years and taught her a lot about trees - and sometimes about cooking.

Fleur was director of place management for the ACT Government but is now branching out on her own, convening The Australian Landscape Conference in Melbourne from March 27-30. Many Canberrans have attended the conference since 2002 as it brings world leading landscape designers and plantspeople to Australia for a biennial conference (landscapeconference.com)

The 2020 topic is "Adaptability of Landscapes" and speakers will include Professor Bruce Pascoe and Monaro farmer Charles Massy on agriculture, Paul Bangay in conversation with Trisha Dixon breaking free of conventions, Professor James Hitchmough (UK) on urban environments, Ulf Nordjfell (Sweden) and Midori Shintani (Japan) on naturalism and Claudia West (USA) on ecological dry climate plant communities.

There will be a social function in the Royal Botanic Gardens on the Saturday evening - a relaxed picnic and tour of the new award-winning Fern Gully Meditation garden guided by Andrew Laidlaw. There will also be a garden tour to six distinctly different Melbourne gardens - apartment rooftop, Yarra River garden border, inner city courtyards, suburban garden with Argentinian and Tandoori ovens and edibles.

Meanwhile, in Canberra, this writer's crab apple tree, grafted onto dwarf apple rootstock from Batlow 20 years ago, has a fair crop which has plumped up following last week's 54ml of rain. Fleur says her grandmother and mother were keen gardeners and fantastic at making jams, with crab apple jelly a speciality along with preserves of all kinds - cherries and apricots especially.

Fleur's mother, Gail Flanery of Galong, has photographed her latest crop of crab apple fruit and jars of her jelly and shared the recipe via Fleur.

(Adapted from Lilly Pilly Jelly recipe - you can use either)

Ingredients

crab apple fruit (or lilly pilly)

1 lemon

sugar

tartaric acid (may not be needed)

water

Method

Wash crab apples well after removing stalks. Barely cover with water, add a whole lemon and bring to the boil. Cook until fruit is tender. The fruit will lose some of its colour. Strain through muslin or a jelly bag overnight or longer. Do not squeeze the bag as it can cloud the jelly. Add a cup of sugar for (each) one cup of strained liquid and bring to the boil. Boil rapidly until a small amount of juice jells on a cold surface. It is not essential but if the mixture is not setting, add one teaspoon of tartaric acid to six cups of liquid. The timing of the picking of the fruit in the season makes a difference to the setting time. Bottle into sterile jars.