Life on the West Island - The garden gnome

One of the West Island’s most famous eccentrics glories in his nickname of The Garden Gnome. The title partly arises from his short stature and voluminous beard, but it is his boundless enthusiasm for enhancing the ecosphere – especially through all things to do with gardening – which means that his nickname is both accurate and well-deserved.

Costa Georgiadis is the celebrated television presenter of Gardening Australia who had a hard act to follow. The previous much-loved host was Tasmanian-based Peter Cundall, who was the first person on the West Island to present a talkback gardening programme on radio in 1967 - and continued to do so for 41 years. Mr Cundall also anchored Gardening Australia for 18 years and in that time became easily the West Island’s most recognised gardening authority.

At the time Cundall stepped down, Costa Georgiadis was hosting Costa’s Gardening Odyssey on SBS television. But within two years, he was announced by ABC as the new presenter of its flagship Gardening Australia show. ABC viewers took some time to warm to Costa’s appearance and style, with many critics forecasting that his apparently unkempt look and overenthusiastic presentation would mean that his time at the show would quickly be over.

Now, 11 years later, Costa is a national icon and one of the best known gardeners in the country. Last year, he won the Silver Logie as the West Island’s Most Popular Presenter. So what is it that contributed to the rise of this unlikely media star?

His online biography blandly reports that Georgiadis was born in Sydney and grew up in North Bondi on the same street as his grandparents and uncle. He is the youngest of three children. His father, Stan, was an electrician and his grandparents fostered his early interest in gardening. He worked as a landscaper whilst studying landscape architecture at University of New South Wales, where he developed an interest in sustainability.

But there is a hint of what was to come in the next passage: From 2009 to 2011, he presented SBS's Costa's Garden Odyssey, a programme that explored the relationship between gardening, sustainability, and spirituality. In 2014, Georgiadis starred as 'Costa the Garden Gnome' in Get Grubby TV on ABC Kids.

You see, Costa take a holistic view of protecting the biosphere, improving and conserving soils and water usage, educating the next generation to love gardening and the uplifting of the human spirit through producing delicious fruit and vegetables and delightful plants and flowers.

This is brilliantly illustrated in his recently released book, Costa’s World. While this beautifully presented volume is in one sense a gardening book, it is so much more, as it lays out Costa’s philosophy of life together with thousands of practical ways in which to enhance the quality of human existence through the entire process of creating and nurturing a productive and beautiful garden.

The book starts with discussion of sustainability (“sustainability begins in the garden”), biodiversity and “the geography of life.” Costa believes that we have forgotten how to be good guests, how to walk lightly on the earth as its other creatures do. He sets out to remedy this by moving on to explain how to build biodiversity in the soil and the landscape. In particular, he pleads with readers to make clever choices by being fully aware of climate, water routines, wind patterns, sunlight and shade and asks them to use their eyes to observe and plan before heading out into the garden.

If you have watched Costa on television, you will know that he is passionate about building up and replenishing soils through use of compost and natural fertilisers and loves to get his hands dirty. He celebrates all living things, particularly plants, and practises permaculture gardening where almost everything is recycled within a philosophy of care of the earth, care of the people and a fair share for all.

But Costa is not just concerned with growing things in the soil. He sings the praises of the contributions made by bees, butterflies, moths, birds, bats, frogs and spiders. But most of all, he urges us to experience the life-changing joy of chooks. This is because these beauties are a beneficial addition to your yard. They devour food scraps, consume bugs and provide eggs – but, most importantly, they are just plain fun to have around. I’m often asked if owning chickens is for everyone, and my answer is, without doubt, a big YES.

Costa’s World also has a lengthy section on Kids in the garden. He loves to see the joy children get from planting and growing things to eat and their fascination with the vast variety of plants, such as succulents, cactuses and carnivorous plants. His book suggests numerous projects for children to build in the garden, such as a tepee trellis, a mulberry cubby house, a herb maze or a bee hotel. It is worth watching his show just to see the spontaneous way children react to his enthusiasm and his vast store of gardening and ecological knowledge.

So, if you want to know about seed propagation, hot composting, conserving water in the garden or dozens of other horticultural tasks, this is a book for you. Or if you just like pretty books with lots of amusing pictures, don’t miss this publication. Maybe you just need your spirits raised? Costa’s World will do that too.

That leaves just two priorities for the coming week on the West Island (and probably in Norfolk Island too):

1. Watch or stream the garden gnome in action on Gardening Australia;
2. Dip into Costa’s World and share his passion for saving the globe, one plant at a time.