The Guseli family: Guido, Glenda, Ric, Valentino, Ali and Kristen. Photo: Supplied.
The Guseli family of Dalmeny regularly makes headlines because of 19-year-old snowboarding prodigy Valentino. While he was winning comp after comp in the Northern Hemisphere 2023/24 season, the rest of the family revamped the well known plant nursery on the Princes Highway in Bodalla.
Guido and Glenda Guseli bought the nursery more than 20 years ago. They ran it themselves for two years before leasing it out for the next 20 years. It became vacant in February.
Their son Ric came home one day and asked his wife Kristen if she would like to start it up. “I said yes, that would be fun! And here we are,” Kristen says. “It is purpose-built and a fabulous location. I don’t know that you could do anything more successfully with the location and infrastructure. We couldn’t leave it there, not being used.”
Kristen’s family moved to the area in 1970 when she was an infant. Guido and Glenda had spent many holidays there as well and moved their family there in the 1980s.
Kristen and Ric met in their high school years. Their two children Valentino and Ali were born in Canberra where Kristen had trained to be a teacher. The family moved back permanently to Dalmeny in 2016 where the children attended school.
Over the past four years, Kristen balanced raising the children with some work as a primary school teacher, mostly in casual and contract positions. That was before the nursery lured her onto a new path.
Guido and Ric are very handy and have quickly put their mark on the nursery, Nonno’s Garden. It took the almost 80-year-old just a day to put a roof on the new hardware section while Ric has terraced what was an awkward sloping area, making it much easier to display plants and for gardening enthusiasts to take their pick.
“We have added landscaping supplies in light of the Dalmeny nursery and landscaping business closing down,” Kristen says. Ric and Guido have cleared the area around the nursery so that all vehicles can deliver or pick up mulch, sand, topsoil and pebbles and leave without having to reverse.
Valentino Guseli helps out in Nonno’s Garden when he is not away training and competing. Photo: Supplied.
Inside has been transformed by the addition of Valentino’s Cafe. It complements the rest of the nursery, encouraging people to relax in the sun and drink in the surrounding serenity and beauty.
Locals have welcomed the changes. “Eight out of 10 who come through the door stop me to say, ‘This is amazing what you’ve done,'” Kristen says. “It would not be possible without the input from Guido, Ric, Val, Ali and the staff. It has been such a great group effort.”
Such is its popularity that the nursery is “reaching the point where it is getting beyond one person being here”. As it is, Ali, also a gifted snowboarder, works there a lot and Valentino helps out whenever he is not on the snow.
He has been travelling the world snowboarding for years. Valentino missed his first day at Kindergarten because he was snowboarding in Japan and did his first trip overseas unaccompanied aged 12. “Although we do miss him, we are used to him not being here,” Kristen says.
She has learnt not to worry too much about him getting injured. “We have given him every opportunity and he has taken every opportunity to do things as carefully and as safely as possible. We trust in Val and his skill, ability and knowledge to do what he needs to do.”
Although Valentino has had professional coaches along the way, Ric has been a constant. It is he and Valentino who are the ultimate decision-makers when it comes to snowboarding.
The next Winter Olympics are in Italy in February 2026. “We are now officially on the preseason, preseason training,” Kristen says. “This is the Southern Hemisphere training for the Northern Hemisphere qualifiers for the Olympics.”
She says the snowboarding community are lovely. “When you see the kids training, they help each other,” Kristen says. “He has some great mates. When their timetables and itineraries cross, he is stoked.”
Nonno’s Garden is located at 195 Princes Highway, Bodalla. They’re open from 9 am until 4 pm Monday to Friday, and from 9 am until 2 pm on Saturday and Sunday. Keep up with them via their Instagram page.
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