Unconventional gardener Costa Georgiadis has been a hit rater for broadcaster ABC as the host of Gardening Australia.
Georgiadis managed to breathe new life in the long-standing show with his addictive on-screen personality and his abundant love of all things gardening.
His fascination with gardens started by venturing in the wonderland that was his pappou’s kypo. Since then, the gardener has loved growing his own produce, flowers and being a leader of sustainability. He has also taught the masses not only the benefits to nature, but the benefits to self and happiness through growing your own garden.
Earlier this year, Costa told Neos Kosmos: “When you grow your own produce, you are eating it when it’s in season and you know what’s in it.
“It’s come from your backyard or your nature strip and what’s best is you pick it and eat it when it has maximum nutritional value. I can walk out now and pick it, wash it and eat it all within half an hour and the damn thing is still alive and it’s pumping minerals into me and I get all those benefits!”
Aside from the television show, Costa started the ‘Gardening on the Verge’ program to encourage community involvement and show that inner-city dwellers can be urban farmers. The Verge garden was set up on a nature strip outside his Bondi residence, and this has spawned urban garden beds on street corners all over Australia.
Catch Costa hosting Gardening Australia on ABC1 every Saturday at 6:30 pm and the repeats on Sunday at 1:00 pm. Programmes can be downloaded or streamed at www.abc.net.au/gardening/ or watched on iview www.abc.net.au/tv/iview/