General News
16 September, 2024
'Garden Gnome' right at home in Jeparit
Costa “the Garden Gnome” Georgiadis surprised Jeparit Primary School students last Friday when he popped in for a look at their garden projects.
Mr Georgiadis was born in Sydney and inherited his love of gardening from his grandparents who, after emigrating to Australia in 1927, were market gardeners.
He studied landscape architecture at the University of New South Wales and developed an interest in sustainability, going on to explore the relationship between gardening, sustainability and spirituality as he presented SBS's Costa's Garden Odyssey from 2009 to 2011.
Mr Georgiadis replaced Stephen Ryan as the host of Gardening Australia in 2011, and in 2014 he starred as "Costa the Garden Gnome" in Get Grubby TV on ABC Kids.
Mr Georgiadis was the host of a six-part podcast aimed at children called Gardening Buds in 2021 and published his book "Costa's World: Gardening for the soil, the soul and the suburbs".
Last year he began hosting Gardening Australia Junior on ABC Kids.
He is also a regular guest speaker at the Wimmera Biodiversity Seminar.
The Jeparit students proudly showed off their garden beds and sustainability projects to Mr Georgiadis and local gardening guru Paul Lehmann before learning more about the role frogs play in the ecosystem, picking up some tips on how to prune their trees and embarking on a river walk.
Mr Georgiadis was warmly welcomed by the school group, who shared their lunch with him: a pasta dish made with garlic and herbs grown in the school gardens.
In what was possibly Mr Georgiadis' favourite activity of the day, he had the honour of ringing the end-of-lunch bell with a six-iron golf club.
"This is the best ever," Mr Georgiadis said.
"I've never been to a school where you have to whack the bell with a golf stick."