5-Minute Garden Creation in Seongdong-gu
Dongdaemun-gu Establishes 'City of Flowers Development Plan'
Jungnang-gu Hosts Seoul Rose Festival
Flower Gardens Created Throughout Nowon-gu
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon's passion for the garden city is exceptional. This May, the World Garden Expo will be held along the Han River.
Mayor Oh has an ambitious plan to make ‘Garden City’ Seoul the city brand ‘Special City of Charm.’ Accordingly, Su-yeon Lee, Director of Seoul’s Green City and Leisure Bureau, is implementing various creative projects this year to complete the garden city, including garden creation.
In line with Seoul’s garden city development, autonomous districts such as Seongdong-gu, Dongdaemun-gu, Jungnang-gu, and Nowon-gu are also accelerating efforts to create ‘garden cities’ and ‘flower cities.’
Seongdong-gu (District Mayor Jung Won-oh) is promoting the ‘Garden City Seongdong’ project to create everyday gardens throughout the district and connect green spaces so residents can enjoy gardens more closely.
Seongdong-gu is pursuing the creation of ‘Garden City Seongdong’ based on four strategies: ‘space,’ ‘nature,’ ‘connection,’ and ‘people.’ By finding small unused spaces in the city to create gardens, they aim to fill the shortage of green spaces and connect fragmented green areas such as rivers and mountains to enjoy nature and leisure together. Additionally, they plan to link cultural programs involving residents to create an emotionally rich garden city.
The district plans to create everyday gardens within a 5-minute reach for residents. Through urban redevelopment, new neighborhood parks and children’s parks will be established, and specialized gardens will be created using vacant lots in front of public institutions such as the district office and Haengdang 1-dong community center, as well as village yards and empty houses near homes, providing residents with resting spaces.
Seongdong-gu will actively utilize its advantage of having the longest waterfront in Seoul (14.2 km) to develop rivers near residential areas into complex cultural spaces where nature and leisure can be enjoyed simultaneously. Through ecological restoration and greening projects of Cheonggyecheon Stream, they will maintain the natural riverside environment, and the vacant land along Jungnangcheon Stream will be developed into a healing garden where visitors can feel the charm of the riverside.
To help residents meet green spaces more easily and quickly near their homes, green roads will be created connecting forests, gardens, and rivers. They plan to strengthen green accessibility by maintaining street trees and expanding green belts, and improve access systems to utilize green spaces as open areas through linkage with various development projects. In the long term, they aim to improve previously disconnected river access paths to enhance the utilization of riverside ecological resources.
Jung Won-oh, Mayor of Seongdong-gu, said, “Through the garden city creation project, I hope residents can enjoy green leisure right in front of their homes. I expect gardens full of various attractions to be prepared everywhere, serving as healing spaces and sanctuaries for residents to recharge.”
Lee Pil-hyung, Mayor of Dongdaemun-gu (center), is having a conversation while looking at tulip flowers.
Dongdaemun-gu (District Mayor Lee Pil-hyung) has established a basic plan since last year to create the ‘Flower City Dongdaemun-gu.’ The three goals presented in the basic plan are ▲Creating a city where history and culture flow ▲Creating a city connecting flowers, trees, and people ▲Creating a happy daily life through participation.
Following this plan, Dongdaemun-gu planted shrubs and flowers along both sidewalks of Gosanja-ro to create street gardens (green belts). Tulips planted last November on the riverside of Jungnangcheon under Jangpyeonggyo Bridge bloomed simultaneously in spring, welcoming residents visiting Jungnangcheon.
The district will continue to create spaces filled with flowers and trees throughout the city this year, providing residents with a bright and pleasant environment.
In January last year, the district presented a new blueprint for the garden city and held a proclamation ceremony for the ‘Flower City.’ In March of the same year, the ‘Flower City Basic Plan Study’ was completed, and they began ‘Creating a Pleasant Walking Environment’ by decorating barren streets and idle spaces with flowers.
By planting evergreens, cornelian cherry trees, and colorful perennials in small vacant lots and flower beds, ‘small gardens in the city’ were created throughout Dongdaemun-gu, brightening the streets. In early April, the first ‘Dongdaemun-gu Spring Flower Festival’ was successfully held along Jang-an Cherry Blossom Road, dyed pink with cherry blossoms, and around Jungnangcheon First Sports Park after the ‘Flower City’ proclamation ceremony.
About 4,000㎡ of ‘Four Seasons Flower Garden’ was created on the riverside of Jungnangcheon under Jangpyeonggyo Bridge. Starting with the ‘Tulip Garden’ in April, where colorful tulips were in full bloom, May featured bright roses, and in autumn, yellow cosmos and four-season roses attracted residents strolling along Jungnangcheon.
The ‘Field of Knowledge Flowers,’ opened last September on the site of Jeonnong-dong Seoul Metropolitan Library (Dongdaemun), was filled with autumn-appropriate flowers such as cosmos, zinnia, and cockscomb in themed spaces. In winter, LED landscape lighting highlighting the beauty of nature was installed in the Field of Knowledge Flowers, providing residents with new winter attractions. Seeds of 12 flower species, including rapeseed, poppy, and cornflower sown last November, along with blue barley symbolizing spring, will welcome residents this spring.
The district operates a ‘Companion Plant Clinic Center’ where ‘plant caretakers’ can resolve questions about plants and receive diagnoses and prescriptions for wilting plants. Additionally, they are nurturing ‘Dongdaemun-gu Village Gardeners’ to cultivate the ‘Flower City’ together with residents.
This year, they plan to create various attractions and spaces for healing in nature within the city, including the ‘Hydrangea Garden’ rest area at Hwikyung-dong Recycling Sorting Center, the ‘Metasequoia Road’ and ‘Barefoot Trail’ along Jungnangcheon, and an ‘Artificial Waterfall’ (with nighttime landscape lighting) in the open plaza of Baebongsan Neighborhood Park. The district aims to create a ‘walkable city’ where residents can encounter green spaces everywhere as soon as they step outside.
Lee Pil-hyung, Mayor of Dongdaemun-gu, said, “Since last year’s proclamation of the ‘Flower City,’ we have made great efforts to promote green projects that residents can feel, such as creating the ‘Field of Knowledge Flowers.’ This year, we will do our best to create a beautiful and pleasant garden city in the urban area of Dongdaemun-gu where flowers, trees, and people harmonize.”
Jungnang-gu (District Mayor Ryu Kyung-gi) holds the ‘Seoul Rose Festival’ every May, themed around roses blooming along Jungnangcheon Stream, establishing it as a representative festival of Seoul.
Nowon-gu (District Mayor Oh Seung-rok) is leading the way in creating a ‘Flower City’ by actively utilizing natural environments such as Bulamsan Mountain.
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