Expansion to reading, rest and cultural activities; 'Seongbuk Gadeuk Garden' festival set for this weekend at Gaeunsan Park

Seongbuk-gu District Mayor Lee Seung-ro (center) poses with community gardeners. [Seongbuk-gu]
Seongbuk-gu District Mayor Lee Seung-ro (center) poses with community gardeners. [Seongbuk-gu]

Seoul's Seongbuk-gu announced Wednesday that it is launching "Garden Phase 2," an expansion of its garden development program to incorporate reading, rest and cultural activities alongside resident-led management. The initiative aims to transform gardens from spaces people simply admire into living spaces where residents linger and tend the grounds themselves.

The district will kick off the new direction by hosting "Seongbuk Gadeuk Garden," a family garden festival, at Gaeunsan Neighborhood Park on Saturday and Sunday. Running from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days, the festival will feature a garden concert, hands-on programs, a garden library, forest recreation activities and a "Seongbuk Garden Fairy Hunt."

The heart of Garden Phase 2 is what happens after a garden is built. Rather than stopping at planting flowers and trees, the district is broadening the program's scope to address what residents actually experience in a garden and who will care for it over the long term.

Odong Neighborhood Park's water-feature garden and forest library illustrate this approach. The water-feature garden repurposes an existing concrete waterway and rocky slope as a water-friendly green space. The forest library converted a shuttered wood-chipping facility site into a space for reading and relaxation. The district is also developing a reading rest area at Gaeunsan Park, steadily expanding spots where residents can read and unwind amid forests and gardens.

To build a resident base for garden stewardship, the district runs a community gardener training and support program. Participants receive classroom instruction on tree and plant care, then move on to hands-on garden design and planting. After completing the course, graduates help create and maintain neighborhood gardens and lead gardening workshops for local residents.

Seongbuk-gu plans to expand its neighborhood garden projects in partnership with community gardeners and to support residents in moving beyond simply using gardens — toward actively tending them and sharing the experience with neighbors.

Last month, the district completed a lifestyle garden on the second-floor café terrace of the Arirang Cine Center. Fourteen graduates of the Seongbuk-gu community gardener program designed and planted the space to suit its character, combining bigleaf hydrangeas, osmanthus, rudbeckia and panicle hydrangeas.

"A garden should be more than a place to admire flowers and trees — it should be an everyday space where residents read, rest and meet their neighbors," Seongbuk-gu District Mayor Lee Seung-ro said. "Through Garden Phase 2, where residents grow and tend the gardens themselves, we will add cultural and community value to our green spaces and ensure that everyone can enjoy nature close to home."


ikson@heraldcorp.com