Costa’s Garden Odyssey arrives


Reality TV? Glitzy garden make-overs? Not a chance, says Costa Georgiadis, the bushy bearded host of the new series, Costa’s Garden Odyssey.

“I didn’t just want to be doing a show on matching white pebbles with the latest pots from India. What I’m trying to do is to expose people to another layer of the environment, sustainability and the eco-system that we are all part of.”

The 10 part series beginning on Thursday takes a holistic approach to gardening with a focus on bringing together communities, growing fresh produce, water conservation, and appreciating the rich pleasures of a simple life.

For example in the regular segment, Costa in the Community, Costa finds some inspirational communities who have in the face of adversity, created a harmonious environment through gardening.

“There are so many great people out there doing incredible things in the environment that never reaches our TV screens,” he says.

“One of the most touching was at the Riverwood Community Garden. The garden plots are literally keeping these old people alive, and giving them a sense of sharing and community. There were two old men, an 86 year old Vietnamese man and an 85 year old Lebanese man that never spoke the language but had been friends for years. We brought interpreters there and they talked to each other for the first time and they were in tears.”

In the segment, Pimp My Plants, Costa offers practical, low cost approaches to problem spots in the garden and demonstrates expert gardening techniques such as worm farming.

But gardening is so much more than just a little corner at the edge of the house, says the garden guru.

“Gardening is part of nature, and we are somewhat disjoined to its cycles and seasons.

“Once we actually get involved in where food comes from, how it is grown, and the cycles of nature, it slows us down and brings us more in contact with who we are and where we came from.”

This has a two fold meaning. On one hand Costa is referring to the spiritual and cultural dimension of gardening which is why he has incorporated a segment, Zen Shed.

In one episode, he explores the spiritual and psychological benefits of gardening through the eyes of a Buddhist Monk.

In another he uncovers the mystery of witchcraft, and in one of the later episodes, he explores the relationship between nature and the Muslim Faith.

Also underpinning his philosophy is the element of nature that is so often undervalued- water.

“If we treated water with the same angst that we treated the global financial crisis, we’d actually understand we are having a global water crisis,” he says.

“Instead of pumping it out into the ocean with the sewerage, we should be recycling every bit of it through grey water, storage tanks and nurturing the soil so that it is receptive to storing water.”

Costa addresses this issue in the series segment, Water works, where he transforms water problems into water solutions and shares his secrets for conserving water.

The landscape architect, who also completed a thesis on ‘Green Cities of the Future’ says his passion for sustainable gardening stems from his grandfather.

“He wasn’t talking biodynamics, organics or permaculture back then- he was just doing it,” he says. “He had a full blown market garden with chickens that ran around freely fertilising the trees to produce better fruit.”

Costa hopes that the series will teach viewers to sow the seeds of environmental sustainability into their own lives.

Tune in to Costa’s Garden Odyssey on SBS on Thursday 27th August at 8.00pm.