🌺Enchanting Gardens: Today We Visit @SelwaCalderbank (The Nostalgic Gardener) In Brussels #GardeningTwitter #LoveGardening

Welcome to my series about gardens and their gardeners.

Over the next few months I will be adding to my regular #SixOnSaturday posts with Sunday spots for fellow gardeners.

Catch up with previous posts in this series below:

Fred and his garden in Normandy, France here.

Sarah and her Australian garden here.

Páraig and his Irish garden here.

Let’s find out more about Selwa and her garden.

Please can you tell us where in the world you live and how long you have been with your current garden and allotment (if you have one).

I’m a Brit living in Brussels, Belgium. We’ve been here almost 15 years (Gulp! How did that happen?), having thought we’d just come for a two or three year adventure abroad, but like many expats here, ended up staying longer. We bought our current house six years ago, largely because I was seduced by the potential of the garden! I also have an allotment, which I got last year. 

What is the main soil type? And what are the benefits or challenges of this soil?

We’re on clay here. It’s wonderfully fertile – roses grow like mad in it – but can be tough to work and dries to a concrete-like consistency in hot summers. 

Have you made any major changes to your garden or have you any new plans for changes?

Yes! It was pretty much a blank slate when we arrived – laid to lawn, backed by a mature hedge and some lovely old brick walls, and some mature trees that overhang the garden from our neighbours’ side. I was instantly reminded of my childhood home in the Kentish countryside – and was clearly driven by nostalgia. Living abroad has made me even more nostalgic, that’s why I’m ‘The Nostalgic Gardener’!

We have made big changes – a decked terrace was put in, perfect for sunny lunches outdoors, I have created a tiny woodland glade, added a chicken coop for our Pekin bantams, a composting area, a raised veg bed and borders packed with plants. I also added a mini-wildlife pond and a log pile for the insects (it’s currently being occupied by a little mouse). The garden is not large – readers of my blog have remarked that I make it sound like I have a small estate when I write about it – but I’ve learnt that you can create separate spaces with their own special atmosphere, however small. 

Do you have a particular garden style that you try to keep to? ie organic, cottage garden, rose garden etc

I’d describe my style as romantic cottage garden – nostalgia again! – coupled with a strong determination to garden in a sustainable and eco-friendly way. I believe that our gardens can be so much more than aesthetically-pleasing places for human occupants; they can and should be living habitats and biodiverse ecosystems. I think sometimes we forget that this earth isn’t here just for our own gratification, and the same principle can be applied to our gardens. Gardening in this way gives me immense pleasure, and I can assure you that if you create welcoming and varied habitats and lay off the pesticides, then the wildlife quickly makes itself at home.

Tell us about some of your favourite plants and why you like them.

Oh goodness, this is a tough question! I could write pages about this. I do love my roses as they do so well here, and I include some of the simpler, single-flowered ones that insects enjoy, including the hybrid musk rose ‘Ballerina’, which welcomes you at the front gate. I also adore the classic cottage garden plants like geraniums, nepeta, campanula, alliums…and lots of herbs, which are so valuable for their aromatic leaves, their flowers and their uses in the kitchen. I am always running out into the garden to pick some chives, origano, rosemary, sage or winter savoury to enliven a sandwich, an omelette, a salad…there’s virtually no dish that can’t be improved with a herb grown in the garden! I also appreciate simplicity in plants – as I answer this I am sitting on the terrace watching the grasses and their lovely seedheads sway in the breeze in our mini-meadow (basically an overgrown lawn!). 

I know that you have just started a gardening newsletter, tell us more about this project.

I started The Green Gardening Newsletter this spring. The idea is to provide sustainable gardening advice and inspiration, as well as share environmental news connected to plants and gardening, and book and podcast recommendations. I have a background in journalism – I was an energy journalist for many years – and I still write articles about gardening and the environment, so I also share these in the newsletter. If this speaks to you, then you can sign up on my blog, the newsletter is free: The Green Gardening Newsletter – The Nostalgic Gardener

I’d like to thank you Rosie for this opportunity to tell your readers about my garden!

It was a pleasure to find out more about your garden, Selwa.

For more blog posts and updates from Selwa follow her blog The Nostalgic Gardener.

Instagram: @the_nostalgic_gardener

Twitter: @SelwaCalderbank