The Nowon Garden Support Center inside Buramsan Healing Town has established itself as a year-round urban retreat, with visitor numbers continuing to climb even after the Buramsan Azalea Festival, Nowon-gu announced Friday.
Foot traffic to the center's indoor greenhouse and cafe has grown steadily since the azalea festival ended, with monthly visitors reaching 23,000 — up 5,000 from the same period last year. The center has moved beyond its identity as a festival-season destination and is now recognized as an everyday rest space used across all four seasons.
Opened in 2021 as Seoul's first garden support center, the Nowon Garden Support Center serves as a hub for garden culture, operating a companion-plant school, a companion-plant clinic and a home gardening shop. Its public cafe, Cafe Forest (4rest), has become a draw in its own right, offering sweeping views of Buramsan through floor-to-ceiling glass windows.
To meet rising demand, the district recently renovated and expanded the facility. The center's overall footprint grew by about 37 percent, with key spaces reorganized throughout. The gardening workshop room was doubled from eight seats to 16, and total cafe seating — indoors and outdoors combined — expanded to 206. A glass greenhouse and hanging flower installations were added, creating a space where visitors can enjoy nature regardless of season or weather.
Resident participation programs have also drawn strong interest. The companion-plant school trains aspiring professional gardeners, while the companion-plant clinic diagnoses ailing plants and provides repotting services. Together, these programs help residents grow and care for plants themselves, supporting what the district calls "green healing in everyday life."
On Friday, the district will hold a mobile companion-plant clinic in the district office lobby, offering plant consultations and repotting services for residents and office workers who find it difficult to visit the center.
Alongside this, the district is running a nighttime nature experience program that lets visitors observe fireflies. It also plans to expand a companion-plant distribution project targeting senior citizens and people with disabilities.
Buramsan Healing Town is a multi-purpose wellness complex that includes a butterfly garden, a picnic area and a forest therapy center. A barrier-free forest trail accessible to electric wheelchairs and strollers allows anyone to reach the Buramsan observation deck comfortably.
"The Nowon Garden Support Center is a community-rooted hub for garden culture where residents can enjoy nature and find rest regardless of the season," district mayor Seo Jun-o said. "We will continue expanding green healing in daily life through diverse programs and facilities, and further enhance the value of Nowon as a garden city."
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