The heirloom variety was recovered by Diggers from Norfolk Island where it was originally planted by convicts in 1778.

My favourite broad beans used to be Aquadulce but, this season, I am growing Mr Fothergill's Coles early dwarf from seed shared by a friend. They are a heavy-cropping and a strong, hardy grower. In a large pot they are a metre tall, staked, and bearing black and white flowers. Next year - crimson!

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Broad beans are a good source of vitamin C, folate and fibre. Young broad beans can be cooked and eaten whole (no need to pod). Broad beans, when podded and boiled for three minutes and refreshed under cold water, can be made into a delicious dip with dill or mint, crushed garlic, cumin, lemon juice and olive oil and served with toasted Turkish bread.

In one of my favourite books, The Fruit, Herbs & Vegetables of Italy (Viking Penguin) by Giacomo Castelvetro, which I reviewed in 1990, the author born in Modena in 1546 and died in London 1616, says: "We eat broad beans at the end of a meal with salty cheese from Crete or Sardinia ... or with Parmesan and always with pepper".

In Castelvetro's favetta the broad beans are cooked in water with salt, put in a stone mortar with a little of the cooking liquid and pounded with a wooden pestle until they are white as snow. Serve hot with olive oil, pepper (or cinnamon) and clean, washed raisins.

Having Floriade back in Commonwealth Park is great for tourism, but Canberrans can also watch the flowers bloom in our own suburbs. Check the Floriade Community website where more than 100 Floriade Community members have contributed to the 2022 Tulip Trail. There is a map which leads to Tuggeranong, Woden and Weston Creek, Inner South, Inner North, Belconnen, Gungahlin, Molonglo and Queanbeyan. On October 8, from 10am, I am off to Torrens Community Hall to see clogging for the first time and to admire the Floriade beds they have planted.

... will be a Sumo mandarin suggested to me by a stranger at Woolworths who was buying six. Known as the dekopon in Japan where they originated, these citrus are large with knobbly skin, easy to peel from their top knot, sweet, seedless and juicy. Sumo are their peak from August to October. I have also bought them at Wiffens in Fyshwick Markets.

Meanwhile in my suburb a keen group of "resident gardeners and weeders" built a timber frame, filled it with rich black soil and we planted tulip bulbs and a fringe of violas and ground cover daisies. The large bed is now a cloth of gold.

The energetic team arranged a Swing Fling last Saturday with a BYO plant swap, live music and food from local shops. It is a wonderful way to meet other residents - there are 39 of us in the link so far. Some have also purchased and planted dozens of tube stock native plants atop our hill. To thank the main organisers, I chose a book which they can share. It is one of eight cooking and gardening books under "Inspired Living" in the current catalogue at Paperchain, Manuka.

With Nature, The Landscapes of Fiona Brockhoff (Hardie Grant Books. $70) the author takes the reader through the gardens and landscapes she has created in Australia. Her approach is sustainable and naturalistic while native plants are clipped like topiary and exotic plants are chosen for their suitability to various locations surviving on rainfall. Fiona encourages her clients to include vegetable gardens, chicken runs and bee-attracting plants.

Her own garden, Karkalla, is on a windswept sand dune on Bunurong country at Sorrento on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. In her kitchen garden, raised perimeter beds are built from old yellow box timbers from Portsea pier. It was planned to grow a substantial amount of the family's food. She brought in chicken manure, seaweed and lucerne hay. Eight large round raised beds are filled with vegetables, there is an orchard, a woodfired oven, rows of lavender and rosemary to attract bees, sunflowers, and seasonal rows of garlic, brassicas, tomatoes, peppers and eggplants.

Seas of wheat coloured gravel travel under plants and link the landscape and there are sculptures all captured in photography by Earl Carter.

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