‘We must cultivate our garden,’ says Candide at the end of Voltaire’s book of the same name. When the outside world seems a mad, bad and dangerous place, sometimes the best thing we can do is simply tend our own plot.

Our garden is a medium-sized urban garden. In our sunny south-facing front garden we have raised beds for growing vegetables and flowers, a combination which inspired the name of the blog. Out back we have a lot of terracing inherited from previous owners, plenty of lovely trees, room for our three kids to play, a couple of herbaceous beds, a ramshackle shed and a lawn which is mainly taken up by a giant trampoline.

I love gardening, but as a mother of three I have very little spare time so I believe in keeping it easy.  I have an RHS Level 2 Certificate in the Principles of Horticulture and am lucky enough to volunteer in the beautiful garden at Charleston farmhouse in East Sussex once a week, but I am still very much learning about gardening as I go along.

Here is a brief introduction to our garden in pictures.

This blog also talks about inspiring gardens we have visited, some of my favourite gardening books and gardening projects I’ve tried with my kids.

You can find me on Instagram and Twitter as @wildecarrot