Costa of Gardening Australia with the autumnal mandala children from Bermagui Preschool made on 9 May. Photo: Eat Dirt Permaculture.
Costa Georgiadis has just concluded his eighth annual visit to the Far South Coast, where he spread laughter, excitement and knowledge wherever he went. The popular host of ABC’s Gardening Australia taught preschoolers, pupils, students and community organisations about far more than gardening. Under the guise of gardening projects, Costa sowed the seeds for a happy, balanced and meaningful life.
One of his regular stops is Moodji Farm, an urban and Indigenous farm that adjoins Bermagui Preschool. Permaculture specialist and tour convenor Dan Bakker from Eat Dirt Permaculture manages the farm which is also supported by volunteers and local business.
Costa helped Georgie Kite from Frame & Brush to get the youngsters making an autumnal mandala. They made it from picking flowers such as calendula and marigolds and crops such as amaranth and radishes, purple popcorn and leaves.
“It shows them you can be creative with things like wattle leaves for texture. Children at the kindergarten are learning life is art,” Costa said. “There are materials around us and there is no need to go to a shop and buy things.”
Costa helped children from Bermagui Preschool make a new sign. Photo: Eat Dirt Permaculture.
The preschoolers also made soup – good enough to sell to the general public – from pumpkins they had grown and harvested.
“This isn’t sold as this is good for you. This is what you do and what you are becoming by being at this school,” Costa said.
He also returned to Jigamy Farm, near Eden, where last year he joined local permaculturalist Robyn Rosenfeldt and specialist grower Vele Civijovski from Garlic Kingdom to deliver a garlic planting master class with almost 40 people attending. They transformed an overgrown paddock into a garlic farm. They used a template to get the correct spacing between the plants, protected them from the local ducks with polytunnels and netting, and made paths.
Participants and students attending from Moruya High School took photos throughout the project to measure progress and understand where their time went. Garlic is a very expensive cash crop and the students give excess produce to friends and family.
“Those are gifts of significance that have taken time and discipline over months. That means a lot more than going to a $2 shop to buy something that is just temporarily out of landfill,” Costa said.
Costa with one of the children at Moodji Farm in Bermagui. Photo: Marion Williams.
Each year Mr Bakker devises the tour for Costa, taking in different corners of the Far South Coast. Costa has previously visited disability services, community gardens, organic farms and Landcare projects, plus schools across the Eden-Monaro district.
Eat Dirt Permaculture has often partnered with Ms Rosenfeldt, the creator of Pip, a permaculture and sustainability magazine, to facilitate the annual tour, along with a host of social enterprises and small businesses. At Jigamy Costa saw projects including market gardens and food forests and learnt about how First Nations people care for land.
“The importance of that knowledge is starting to get the recognition it deserves,” he said.
Costa was particularly impressed by Fling Physical Theatre. It is a youth dance organisation that brings together Bega Valley’s youth with local and visiting professional artists.
“They get to shape their future around people who are incredibly talented and open to giving them those little life insights that you can’t find online. They have someone looking them in the eye and saying this is my experience,” he said.
Everything Costa saw and did on his visit was not about gardening but about life.
“Gardening is life. Our life starts in the earth and ends in the earth. People who are grounded can teach their children to be grounded. That is what it is all about,” he said.
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