Daejeon City to Launch 'Citizen-Participatory Village Garden' Project Involving Residents from Design to Construction

15 Project Sites and Participating Teams to Be Finalized by February
Citizen Gardeners and Professional Designers to Mentor Residents, Joining from the Initial Planning Stage

Daejeon City Hall Exterior (Photo by Mo Seokbong)

Daejeon City will launch the "2026 Citizen-Participatory Village Garden Project," in which residents will be involved in every stage from garden design to construction.

Through this project, citizens will directly transform neglected urban spaces into beautiful gardens and improve the cityscape with guidance from professional mentors.

Under the slogan "Everyday Life Nurtured by Citizens, Villages in Gardens," this initiative was selected as a citizen-led project in the 2026 participatory budget.

Daejeon City will finalize a total of 15 project sites and participating teams by February, providing approximately 10 million won in funding per site. Around June, small-scale village gardens measuring 30 to 40 square meters, created by citizens, will be showcased.

Notably, this project will support citizen gardeners and professional garden designers previously trained by Daejeon City as mentors. From the initial planning stage-including design concepts, plant and material selection, construction, and management methods-these mentors will work alongside residents to realize high-quality gardens and promote a culture of citizen-created gardens.

The village gardens established through this project are expected to become spaces where citizens share simple happiness in their daily lives by tending to gardens, as well as sustainable urban regeneration models that revitalize neglected land into vibrant community spaces.

Park Youngcheol, Director of Greenery and Agro-Bio at Daejeon City, stated, "We need the active interest and participation of Daejeon citizens so that these gardens, nurtured by the hands of residents in the gray city, can become spaces where people experience the possibilities of creating and using these areas themselves."