Gardening Australia

6:30pm – Saturday, November 10 on ABC1

Gardening Australia provides practical, realistic and credible horticultural and gardening advice, inspiring and entertaining gardeners around the nation. In this special episode, we meet the five finalists in Gardening Australia’s Gardener of the Year competition.

In rural Victoria, presenter Tino Carnevale meets a gardener who has transformed her block into the Mediterranean landscape that she and her husband love. The couple also share their garden with people from diverse backgrounds and abilities.

About two hours from Adelaide, presenter Sophie Thomson visits a spectacular Australian plant garden that was cleverly designed and built to thrive in the local conditions.

In Jervis Bay, host Costa Georgiadis meets a gardener who’s planted and nurtured a thriving coastal garden and taken her passion beyond her own block by helping to revegetate local dunes.

Presenter Jane Edmanson visits the Royal Talbot Rehabilitation Centre in Melbourne to meet a gardener who has created stunning sensory gardens for patients, staff and visitors to the centre.

And presenter Jerry Coleby-Williams travels to Cairns to visit a lush tropical garden created with hard work, creativity and cuttings.

6:30pm – Saturday, September 29 on ABC1

Gardening Australia provides practical, realistic, and credible horticultural and gardening advice, inspiring and entertaining gardeners around the nation. Hosted by Costa Georgiadis, and presented by Australia’s leading horticultural experts, Gardening Australia has been a valuable resource to gardeners nationwide since it first aired on ABC TV in 1990.

In this special episode ‘Connection to Country,’ Gardening Australia celebrates the ways in which indigenous people are connected to the land. Host Costa Georgiadis is joined by presenters Clarence Slockee and Josh Byrne as they travel across the Northern Territory and Western Australia to tell four inspiring stories.

In Katherine, Costa and Clarence help a local pre-school build a sensory garden for the kids to explore. On the outskirts of town, they visit a productive farm that is growing fresh food, as well as developing jobs, skills and a future for the local community.

In the remote Kimberley town of Looma in Western Australia, Josh visits a school that has integrated gardening into the canteen and the classroom. Meanwhile, Costa and Clarence travel to King Valley where women elders have planted a garden in order to pass on knowledge and culture, and strengthen their community.

It is with sadness that ABC TV announces that Colin Campbell, a much-loved Gardening Australia presenter, passed away this morning at age 78 after a short battle with cancer.

Colin was an original member of the Gardening Australia family and began presenting for the program during its first year on air in 1990. With his abundant warmth and enthusiasm, Colin inspired gardeners around the country for 23 years.

Costa Georgiadis, host of Gardening Australia, said: “Colin was a down to earth passionate gardener and environmental champion, but also an enthusiastic family and community building leader. The Gardening Australia family will miss him and remember his warmth, humour and endless energy.” Continue reading »

6:30pm – Saturday, June 2 on ABC1

Gardening Australia pushes the boundaries with a special big-picture look at soil and water issues.

Josh visits a third-generation farmer in the Great Southern region of Western Australia who has transformed his approach to farming over the last 30 years by dealing with issues of salinity, water management and organics.

Sophie goes to a small mixed-scale farm on the outskirts of Adelaide that has been cleverly designed to make productive use of the local climate, sites and resources and features permaculture principles that can be used in home gardens.

Costa meets a young couple in country Victoria who have restored their land by working with and mimicking nature, providing lessons which all gardeners can learn and apply.

6:30pm – Saturday, May 12 on ABC1

Costa heads down his street to help get a neighbouring family started on their verge planting of vegies, herbs and natives.

In Adelaide he visits Sophie and meets her five children, when he takes a tour of her new garden and hears of her plans for it.

Tino in Tasmania harvests the last tomatoes, clears zucchini plants from the garden beds and does some autumn fruit tree maintenance.

John drops in on his mum in Fremantle to show us her stunning home sanctuary and courtyard garden that have been artfully designed for the seaside climate.

ABC TV is thrilled to announce Costa Georgiadis as the new host of Gardening Australia.

Loved throughout the country for his infectious personality and respected for his passion to inspire gardening communities through sustainable organic approaches, Costa will bring a dynamic energy to one of ABC TV’s most iconic programs.

Hooked on gardening from an early age thanks to his grandfather’s veggie patch, Costa’s career began in landscape architecture before growing to national prominence in the SBS TV series Costa’s Garden Odyssey.

Jennifer Collins, Head of Factual, says: “Costa will bring an informed and entertaining spirit to the series. He’s got a reputation for having his finger on the pulse and I’m looking forward to seeing him communicate his exciting approach to gardening in his own inimitable style.”

Costa says: “Gardening Australia is about gardening all of Australia – nurturing its plants and its people. I can’t wait to travel the country, share incredible gardening stories and create some new projects to get us all talking and blossoming.’’

So what has Costa got planned for the 2012 series? Find out when he joins the rest of the team on ABC1 from Saturday March 24 at 6.30pm.

6:30pm – Saturday, September 24 on ABC1

Jane Edmanson visits the Olive Pink Botanic Garden in Alice Springs to see the incredible plants of the desert. Tino Carnevale in Tasmania checks in on a school garden he helped to build a year ago to see how it is getting along and to solve a few problems.

Angus Stewart shows how to propagate herbs and John Patrick explores the gardens at the Heide Museum of Modern Art, in Melbourne.

Over in WA, Josh Byrne looks back in on the family back yard he is helping to design and plants some herbs for the chooks, rejuvenates the lawn and marks the final layout of pathways.

6:30pm – Saturday, August 6 on ABC1

Indigenous presenter Clarence Slockee visits a local primary school and helps the pupils start their new garden, while Jane Edmanson visits Victoria’s oldest native plant garden to look for her favourites for winter colour.

Colin Campbell checks on plant collector Bill Coombes in Brisbane to see how his garden is recovering after the devastating January floods.

John Patrick visits a garden where the designer managed to make productive use of odd spaces.

6:30pm – Saturday, June 25 on ABC1

Australian opera stars Antoinette Halloran and James Egglestone are passionate gardeners and have created a harmony of a different kind with their beautiful space they have created for their young family.

Leonie Norrington meets one of the Top End’s great gardening characters, Waldo the bush poet, and finds out the moving story of his garden while Clarence looks at a group of spectacular plants – the giant lilies.

John Byrne revisits a young family for whom he helped lay out a back yard, to see how further path work and garden beds are progressing.

Jerry shows how he keeps up a continuous supply of greens through the winter and spring.

6:30pm – Saturday, May 14 on ABC1

Stephen Ryan shows how to train climbers around trees to add seasonal colour and protect fruit crops and Jane Edmanson drops in on an old friend to see some of the tricks he has mastered over a lifetime of gardening.

Colin Campbell looks at a colourful collection of hibiscus and gives his top tips for growing them at their best.

Tino plants heirloom potatoes and peas and a green manure crop.

Leonie Norrington shows how to get cool climate bulbs to flower in the tropics.