Organic nursery gardeners in Anderlecht — the PÉPI PÉPI trio
Three journeys, one compass. We sow — a little, a lot, passionately, PÉPI PÉPI!
What we grow, and why
What we grow are plants for overflowing gardens, for balconies, for terraces, for those who want to eat what they have grown. Vegetable plants in the ground. Berry bushes at mid-height. Trees and endemic species in the canopy. And grapevines, kiwis, climbing plants that weave the layers together and create shade, humus, life.
A garden that buzzes. That climbs. That feeds itself — and requires less and less effort to give more and more. We dream of establishing hundreds of permaculture, syntropic, life-filled gardens in Belgium!
Our seeds are heirloom. Varieties cultivated and passed down from hand to hand, never passing through the industry's cash register. Unlike F1 hybrids, they can be re-sown, adapting to your soil, to your tastes, from year to year. For autonomy, robustness, and biodiversity.
Everything grows in peat-free potting mix. Peat bogs take millennia to form and store carbon — destroying them to make nursery substrate in Anderlecht is absurd, isn't it? Our mixes are based on compost and living substrates that nourish the soil.
So here's what we do: cultivate living things in Brussels, for Brussels residents. Plants that have a story and that, we hope, will also tell yours.
The Trio
Alvina Lèche — The Green Thumb
Alvina grew up on a large family farm near Córdoba, Argentina. Animals, grains, the rhythm of the seasons—this was her childhood backdrop. Then she became a biologist, spending six years studying the impact of pollutants on bird populations in agroecosystems.
She could have continued. But something pulled her elsewhere—towards plants, hands in the earth, the tangible work of living things. In 2025, she joined the Pépinière des Alvéoles in Drôme for nine months: sowing, transplanting, cutting, choosing varieties, managing a greenhouse.
Today, Alvi is PÉPI PÉPI's green thumb. She knows every plant in the nursery, exactly what it needs, what it lacks, what song to sing to it.
If our plants are so beautiful, it's largely thanks to her.
Aurélie Hennebert — The Garden Vision
Aurélie studied social work. Before coming to the nursery, she grew up here in Anderlecht. She supported homeless people, then ran a permaculture garden at the Maison Verte et Bleue in Brussels. It was there that something changed for her – the garden was no longer just a teaching tool, it was a way of inhabiting space, of being with people, of being with living things.
She trained wherever living knowledge was transmitted: naturalistic gardening, herbal tea making, garden design, agroforestry. In 2025, she joined the Pépinière des Alvéoles in Drôme as a "companion of the living" – nine months working in the nursery, and in parallel designing an artistic garden in Provence's Drôme region.
Within PÉPI PÉPI, Aurélie brings the vision: how a garden lives, breathes, and develops over time. How to create an edible, beautiful, and decorative garden. And when a garden is designed with PÉPI PÉPI, she holds the pencil.
Romain Herrerias — the farmer-communicator
Romain is a communications professional by training, and worked for a long time on education and food projects before going to learn market gardening at Larock farm, near Liège. This was followed by: market gardening and sheep farming in northern Loire, managing a farm-inn on a mixed farming and livestock farm, and coordinating a rural third place.
But the real turning point came from Wwoofing in Tuscany with Aliosha Cheyko, an arborist severely affected by climate change. It was there that he discovered syntropic agroforestry: a method that designs the garden as a forest in the making, where each plant plays a role in the system's resilience. He then trained with Anaëlle Therry, a leading expert in syntropy in France, as well as in Sicily at one of Europe's largest syntropic farms.
At PÉPI PÉPI, Romain amplifies the trio's work beyond the Rue du Chant d'Oiseau and changes hats according to needs.
How we work
Everything we sell was grown here. We don't resell anything — we sow, we wait, we water, we transplant, we wait again. It's slow, sometimes stressful! but it gives us plants that we love and know even before they arrive at your home.
Heirloom seeds — never F1
Heirloom seeds are not a trend – they are what we used before the industry decided that all tomatoes had to be round and travel three weeks by truck. Our varieties have a history, a taste, and can be re-sown year after year. This season: +150 varieties in the catalogue. The Tigerella and Prolific de Falisolle tomatoes, the Belgian Melon from Pajottenland, the Vendée Striped Gourd… Names that remind us that our plants have a unique history and flavour.
Peat-free — across all production
All our plants grow in peat-free soil. Peat bogs take millennia to form and store carbon — we didn't want to contribute to the destruction of peat bogs on the other side of the world just to grow our tomatoes in Anderlecht. Our mixes are based on compost and living substrates. It works just as well, and it pollutes much less.
Thinking in Gardens, Not Rows
Syntropy and permaculture are based on the idea that a garden can function like a forest — plants that help each other, complementary layers, a system that becomes more robust over time. Specifically: a tomato with its basil, nasturtiums, and marigolds is a guild — and a guild takes care of itself to some extent. This is how we select our plants and design the gardens with you — vegetable gardens, small fruit trees, berry bushes, native species for those who plan twenty years ahead rather than just for the next season.
Come see us
The Nursery
Plants can be picked up on Wednesdays from 4 PM to 6 PM and on Saturdays from 10 AM to 12 PM, at 171 Rue Chant d'Oiseaux, 1070 Anderlecht.
Visiting the greenhouse is also an opportunity to talk about the plants, your garden, and what grows well for you — we take our time.
Garden Design
Do you have a space to transform—a balcony, garden, or courtyard—and you want it to be productive and designed for the long term? We design edible gardens in Brussels and its surroundings, using permaculture and syntropic farming principles.
Follow us
New varieties, greenhouse arrivals, planting tips — it all goes through Instagram and Facebook.