![Comedian Lee Young-ja. [Captured from YouTube channel 'Lee Young-ja TV']](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/09/07/news-p.v1.20260907.02211f93d8094eb785f81a9a2b65cccb_P1.jpg)
Broadcaster Lee Young-ja, who splits her time between the city and the countryside, was left speechless after autumn rains reduced the garden at her second home to a shambles.
A video titled "Lee Young-ja's fresh September table — made by raiding the front yard instead of the supermarket" was posted to her YouTube channel, Lee Young-ja TV, on Sunday.
The footage shows Lee surveying her front garden after a recent spell of autumn rain had passed through.
Stepping into the garden, she found crops knocked over in every direction and could barely contain her dismay.
Confronted with rows of snapped corn stalks, she exclaimed, "Wow, they're all broken. All the corn is broken. This is terrible." She then spotted the mint in a planter — bent and toppled — and sighed, "It's been completely wrecked."
What shocked her most was the sight of her prized tomato planters. Unable to withstand the driving rain and wind, they had toppled over one after another.
"These tomatoes are my 26-year passion project, and all the planters have fallen over," she said, unable to hide her disappointment.
A large shade screen installed in the garden had also collapsed, a testament to just how fierce the autumn rains had been.
Lee ultimately rolled up her sleeves and set the garden right herself — propping up fallen seedlings one by one and re-erecting the shade screen with her own hands.
She also had a message for viewers: "I hope none of you suffered any rain damage. Let's wrap up summer well."
With the garden back in order, Lee returned a few days later to harvest vegetables she had grown herself — peppers, zucchini and cucumbers — and got to work putting together her "September table."
She combined the homegrown produce with octopus and pollock roe to make fried rice, and the crew who tasted the finished dish marveled, "You can really taste how fresh all the ingredients are."
Lee began her "three days city, four days country" lifestyle in 2024 following the death of her mother. The arrangement means spending three days a week in the city and four in the countryside.
On days without scheduled work, she tends her garden and enjoys rural life. Explaining why she chose the four-days-in-the-country arrangement, she has said she is at a stage in life where she no longer needs to compete with anyone — that she would rather cheer on and guide the younger generation than seek applause for herself, and that it is fine to take things at a slower pace.
betterj@heraldcorp.com
