SERIES 23 Episode 14

Three years ago, 53-year old builder Leo Cummins had high blood pressure and cholesterol and his doctor thought he was heading for a heart attack.

Leo said "I was sitting in the doctor's surgery - I knew I was unwell. He gave me a whole bunch of prescriptions and pills, for you know, blood pressure and stuff and that really freaked me out and I knew I had to do something then. I went away and researched and thought about things for a while and decided that I'd tried every other diet but I hadn't really got into the vegies I was growing enough. Back to the garden and that turned out to be the solution."

Leo went from a predominately meat and dairy diet to being a vegan. His blood pressure and cholesterol have normalised and he's lost 15 kilograms.

He's created an abundant garden on his 800 square metre block that has a diverse range of tasty, vitamin rich herbs, fruit and vegies that nourish him every day.

He said "The thing that makes me really proud of this garden is the fact that every meal I eat at home, I eat something that I have grown - whether it be a stick of celery, or like in summer, the whole, you know, sort of corn, potato, beans, mish-mash, you know. It's just a great thing to do."

Angus and Leo compared notes on propagating sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas). Leo prefers to snip off a piece of vine around 15cm long, snip off the side leaves and pop it into the ground. Angus likes to cut off any vines growing over his path, then cut them off in long sections and drop them into a trench, then backfill.

Angus congratulated Leo on the diversity of his garden. To prove it, Leo fed Angus what looked like a strictly ornamental flower from a huge Pineapple Sage (Salvia elegans). The little red flowers are as edible as the leaves. Leo's also growing some unusual vegetables.

"This particular one here's pretty interesting. It's a Yacon or Peruvian Ground Apple (Smallanthus sonchifolius). It's a relative of the Sunflower and it's really easy to grow and propagate and it chucks out these wonderful sort of tubers that taste like nashi pear and it's really interesting and as the top dries completely off, they just get really sweet and it'll be nice," Leo explained.

Leo has worked hard to improve his soil, which is based on Hawkesbury sandstone.

His recycling system includes worms, compost tumblers and a hot compost system. He gathers extra material from his neighbours.

Angus asked if the way Leo gardens now has changed his life in any other way, as well as physically.

He said "It's about mind, body and soul. It's about, like, a holistic goal of putting your health and your sort of sustainability, low energy, long-term low impact situation together."

"Mate, all gardeners are happy. What else would we be? Put your hands in the earth mate and let the static run out of your head."