APP of the WEEK

CANDIDE (iOS and Android, free)

IT’S not often we feature an app inspired by Voltaire… and yet here we are with Candide, a gardening app named after the French writer’s novel of the same name.

I’ve never read Candide, but the makers of this app say the eponymous hero

ends the story “at peace with himself, life and the world through cultivating his garden,” and their efforts will help you do the same.

I can’t say I don’t like the sound of being at peace with myself and the world.

Anyway, it offers a few services – the

ability to post pictures of your own efforts, and see others’ gardens, the ability to ask questions of the larger community, and a handy guide to some of the finest gardens near you.

Now that spring is beginning to poke its head above the fence,

it might be sage advice to get your gloves on and your trowel out and head out into wilderness to do some tidying up.

Given all that’s going on in the world, your garden might well prove to be the safest and sanest place to be this year.