Building a 'Garden City' Together: Yangcheon-gu Grows Neighborhood Volunteer Gardening Corps

Yangcheon-gu is expanding its resident-led Yangcheon Garden Volunteer Corps to individual dong neighborhoods, aiming to embed a culture of everyday gardening across the district.

The district held an inaugural ceremony for the Mok 2-dong Yangcheon Garden Volunteer Corps on Wednesday, followed by a launch event for Mok 3-dong on Thursday, officials said.

The Yangcheon Garden Volunteer Corps is a voluntary organization in which residents interested in gardening serve as neighborhood gardeners, taking part in creating and maintaining local green spaces. The district has been running dong-level corps since August last year, starting in Sinwol 4-dong, as part of an effort to build a resident-driven garden culture centered on everyday living areas.

The newly launched corps in Mok 2-dong and Mok 3-dong each have 20 members. Following their inaugural ceremonies, members will attend four weekly training sessions through Sept. 17, covering garden and plant theory as well as practical skills including weeding, watering, and pest and seasonal plant management. After completing the training, the Mok 2-dong corps will tend the Haneulmaji Garden beneath the Yanghwa intersection, while the Mok 3-dong corps will focus on Nuri Children's Park and a small park in Mok 3-dong.

The dong-level corps got fully underway in the second half of last year with Sinwol 4-dong, where 26 residents manage the flower beds along the "Sinwol 4-dong Walking Street." In March, corps were also formed in Sinjeong 1-dong and Sinwol 5-dong, tending a rest garden in front of Yangmyeong Elementary School and a garden along the Sumyeongsan trail, respectively.

Two more corps — in Sinwol 1-dong and Sinjeong 3-dong — are set to be established in October. The district plans to eventually extend the program to all 18 dong, tailoring garden management activities to each neighborhood's character and fostering a lifestyle garden culture in which residents can encounter and tend green spaces close to home.

Alongside the dong-level corps, Yangcheon-gu runs a range of other resident participation programs, including the "Y Gardening Crew," which allows participants to take on pre-sale plots of idle green space along the Anyangcheon and cultivate their own gardens. The Y Gardening Crew was recognized in 2025 as a model case of public-private urban greening cooperation and received the Seoul Metropolitan Government Garden City Award.

Building on this resident-driven garden culture, the district plans to transform underused pockets of urban space into 1,004 themed gardens by 2029, working toward a sustainable "Garden City Yangcheon" where residents can connect with nature in their daily lives.

"Green spaces in the city are becoming increasingly important as places for climate crisis response, urban heat island mitigation, and emotional healing," Yangcheon-gu District Mayor Lee Gi-jae said. "We will continue to expand both the green spaces where residents can encounter and rest in nature, and the garden culture that residents themselves cultivate and enjoy."