About Tom Deseyn
Hi, I'm Tom Deseyn, co-founder of Plukkers.com.
Plukkers officially launched on August 4, 2024, but before that I spent almost ten years building Moestuinweetjes.com.
Since 2014, I've been actively growing my own vegetables, fruit, and grapes. What started as a small herb garden has grown into a 400 m² vegetable garden, several greenhouses, and a hobby vineyard.
I am the founder of Moestuinweetjes.com (2015–2024), author of dozens of vegetable garden blogs and growing guides, developer of sowing calendars and maker of hundreds of YouTube videos about vegetable gardening, viticulture and craft making.
With Plukkers I help people in Belgium and the Netherlands to grow, bake, brew and create their own food again.
All articles I write are based on my own practical experience and are regularly updated based on new insights.
My experience with vegetable gardening
My first vegetable garden was born in 2014, more by chance than from a long-held dream. What started with a few herbs quickly grew into a full-fledged vegetable garden.
At its peak my garden consisted of:
- 13 vegetable garden beds of 1.20 m wide
- A glass conservatory
- A tunnel greenhouse measuring 7.5 x 3 metres
- A vegetable garden area of up to 400 m²
- A hobby vineyard with ultimately 333 vines
Since 2019, I've also dedicated myself to growing grapes and making wine. The process of transforming sun and rain into something tangible and flavorful remains a source of pure wonder for me.
I don't garden from theory, but from daily practice. What I write, I test myself.
What I have built
Over the years, my passion grew into a platform and a company.
- Founder of Moestuinweetjes.com (April 2015)
- Co-founder of Plukkers.com (August 4, 2024)
- Author of numerous vegetable garden blogs and growing guides
- Developer of sowing calendars for vegetable garden planning
- Author of the book My Organic Vegetable Garden (free download)
- Creator of hundreds of videos on YouTube
I'm a proponent of knowledge sharing. Information should empower people, not make them dependent.
Why I write and do business
I started my website because I was tired of finding information scattered throughout. There was no single place where everything was together.
On one site I found information about how deep carrots should be sown, on another site I found planting distances, but nowhere was everything listed together.
I also write and do business from the conviction:
Whoever or whatever you give attention to grows and blossoms.
This applies to children, to plants and to businesses.
Plukkers is for people who want to make something with their hands. For those who want to slow down. For those who find satisfaction in creating things themselves.
Not to be perfect.
Well to grow.
My Personal Story: The Pile of Wood That Changed My Life
For Pickers there was Moestuinweetjes.com, a website that I started rather coincidentally in 2015.
Let me take you through my story...
It was sometime in early 2014, and a patch of grass in my garden was ruined. I'd received a pile of firewood from a friend the year before, 2013, but hadn't immediately found the time to cut and dry it. A roughly 5 square meter section of lawn was ruined that winter under the weight of the wood. I had no idea that pile of wood would cause such a devastation. I wasn't much of a gardener at the time.
I had finally neatly sawn the wood and stacked it in the wood racks and was already standing with the grass seed in my hand when my wife Stefanie suggested that I make a small herb garden in the spot where the grass had died.
"A few herb plants from the garden center, a beam or two around them, and Bob's your uncle. Then we'll always have fresh herbs," my wife said. My eyes rolled back in my sockets and I thought, "That'll take a long time..."
And it took a long time, because after planting the thyme, rosemary, parsley, sage, and so on in the herb garden, square meter after square meter of lawn was lost. Not because of my wife; she was content with that small patch. It was me who felt the urge to grow more and more. I was actively working in the garden and derived a great deal of physical and mental satisfaction from it. Cut a strip of turf with a spade, put the garden shovel under it, and "voila!" another vegetable garden was created.
In 2015, when it became clear that the vegetable garden wasn't a passing fad, I built my first glass greenhouse/garden shed. I'll never forget that first tomato I pulled off the plant and popped in my mouth. Did I really make it? It was heavenly, and I even grew it myself.
My second vegetable garden...
That same year, I bought a vacant plot of land down the street for next to nothing. I created 13 vegetable beds, each 1.20 meters wide and between 4 and 8 meters long. Later in 2018, I also added a tunnel garden... In short: the 3 m² herb garden became a large vegetable garden, at its peak 400 m².
Vegetable garden facts.com
I've always been a proponent of sharing information. In April 2015, I launched the website www.moestuinweetjes.com (the link no longer works, of course) because I was tired of having to search for information on different sites.
I became the author of countless vegetable garden blogs and growing guides, and even wrote a book, "My Organic Vegetable Garden," which you can still download for free . Teaching people how to grow their own vegetables and fruit was a real thrill. So was developing sowing calendars for planning their vegetable gardens.
On my YouTube channel, I made hundreds of videos showcasing growing fruits and vegetables, products, and our online store. More and more people found their way to what would later become Plukkers.com and Plukkers TV .
Because the website was paid for hosting, I was looking for a way to avoid paying for it myself. "An online store! Yes, that's the solution," I thought. But I didn't have any products, and frankly, I couldn't convince my wife to invest in a ton of products we didn't have room for in our house.
Luckily, I met Peter in 2015. He had a garden center but no online store, and I had an online store but no garden center. The beginning of a beautiful story.
I still remember Peter's mother's wide-eyed look when I left Peter's garden center with yet another Berlingo full of gardening supplies. She now knows it wasn't in vain.
The most important grow in my life
Just as we didn't want a vegetable garden before 2014, my wife Stefanie and I also didn't want children. I don't know if the vegetable garden or my business had anything to do with it, but the year I turned 40, we decided to have children, preferably two in quick succession.
In 2018, I became a dad to Ella at the age of forty, and 13 months later, my wife Stefanie and I welcomed our second daughter, Sam . Apparently, I'd really caught the breeding bug :).
And just like with a successful potato harvest or a successful potty training, the same principle applies: "Whoever or whatever you pay attention to, grows and blossoms."
In 2019, in addition to the vegetable garden, I also focused on growing grapes and running the winery. Literally transforming the sun's rays and raindrops into joy—bliss. In 2019, I had 103 vines, 6 vegetable beds, and a 7.5-meter by 3-meter tunnel greenhouse.
The plot of land with the vineyard and vegetable garden was 150 meters from our house, and with the children, it wasn't always convenient. They often wanted to come to the garden with us, only to want to go home after 10 minutes. I would have loved to have my vegetable garden and a larger vineyard near my house. And if I could have housed my company's offices there, that would have been fantastic. But where do you find a house with a garden of approximately 1200 m², the possibility of an office, and storage for the vegetable garden and winemaking equipment that fits your budget?
My dream house in 2022
Well, dream house. You always have to compromise... This is the video I posted on our YouTube channel on May 31, 2022:
Old and new vegetable garden friends
As I mentioned, I started my business with Peter (top right). He was the one who shipped the packages for Moestuinweetjes.com from his garden center.
Yannick (bottom right) was still a student when I started working with Peter in 2015, but he came to help out as a student worker during busy periods. When he graduated as a horticultural engineer in 2020, we convinced him to come work full-time at Plukkers.
In 2023, we met Ruud and Merel from Moestuin Advies . They asked if we could collaborate. One thing led to another, and on August 4th, Moestuinweetjes... Plukkers.com!
I feel at home at Plukkers
Plukkers is there for garden enthusiasts, bakers, and brewers in Belgium and the Netherlands... in short, for anyone who wants to pick up a craft hobby. The company allows me to share content about all my hobbies and sell the products that truly matter.
So, I hope you've gotten to know me a little better and that I can also infect you with my passion for vegetable gardening and hobby winemaking.
I wish you the best of luck in all your efforts to create something that truly makes you deeply happy.
Want to start your own vegetable garden or hobby vineyard? Check out my growing guides, blog posts, or discover the sowing calendars.
Warm regards, Tom
This author page was last updated on: February 13, 2026.