#PeopleOfNRM – Costa Georgiadis - NACC - Northern Agricultural Catchments Council

The star of this month’s #PeopleOfNRM is none other than the king of the garden, Costa Georgiadis!

Hailing from Sydney as a Greek Australian, Costa grew up among a diverse range of backyard gardens where pot plants were passed around, bits snapped off and propagated as a form of currency. His grandmothers instilled in him their love for cooking while his grandfather, a market gardener, shared his knowledge on composting and building a rich and thriving soil foundation.

After studying landscape architecture at the University of New South Wales, Costa saved his pennies and ventured off on a ‘holiday’ to Europe which became home for three years. This opened him up to working on rooftop gardens, community composting and wetlands.

Although Costa holds a passion for music and a love for sport, his life revolves around sustainable gardening – especially the kind you can eat!

Costa is well known as the friendly, bearded face of Gardening Australia, and gained fame when he set up a verge side community garden in front of his home. This project has since evolved into a combination street library, native plant garden, compost system and bathtub worm farm.

When it comes to tackling projects in your own garden, Costa’s tips are simple; get to know your garden, know what you can plant and experiment!

This can mean investigating the plants, insects, animals and bugs that inhabit your garden space. Also looking at where the light comes in throughout the day and how this effects activity in your garden.

Knowing what to plant can be dependent on the time of year, the climate where you live and the kind of soil you’re working with. Soil can be nourished and built up by composting with food scraps, which also helps cut down your household waste! Win, win!

And when it comes to getting experimental, why not grab some of your favourite greens and attempt propagation? A jar of water near a light window will do the trick for some plants, and before you know it you might have the beginnings of your very own vegetable garden !

Costa is also a huge advocate for chickens and says there are options for mobile coops that can be easily transported around the yard. Chickens usually like space to wander and generally prefer a friend, so two is always better than one!