Appointment ceremony for the 13th–15th cohorts held Friday; all 55 completed 30 hours of professional training
Seongdong-gu in Seoul held its "2026 Second-Half Community Gardener Appointment Ceremony" on Friday, officially appointing 55 new community gardeners.
The newly appointed gardeners — comprising the 13th, 14th and 15th cohorts — completed 30 hours of training covering the knowledge and practical skills needed to create and maintain gardens. The curriculum combined classroom sessions on garden design, plant characteristics and care methods with hands-on field practice in planting and pruning. Trainees also visited the 2026 Seoul International Garden Expo alongside garden docents and civic gardeners to study a range of garden design approaches.
The Seongdong-gu Community Gardener program is a resident-led garden community in which locals with an interest in gardening receive professional training and then tend gardens across the district. The district has run the training program since 2024 and has produced a total of 282 community gardeners over three years, including this year's cohort.
Community gardeners take part in seasonal maintenance activities at neighborhood gardens throughout the district — watering, weeding and clearing spent flower stalks. The newly appointed gardeners will join existing cohorts in tending key everyday gardens across Seongdong-gu's four zones.
The gardeners' steady efforts have yielded notable recognition. At this year's Seoul International Garden Expo, two garden works the community gardeners helped create each won a bronze award in the Citizen Partnership Garden category, while the Jungnangcheon Welcome Garden, which the gardeners have managed exclusively, received an excellence award at the 2026 Seoul Metropolitan Government Garden City Award.
The district plans to continue supporting the gardeners through monthly group activities focused on skills development and community building. Through these efforts, Seongdong-gu aims to spread a culture of resident-led garden stewardship and expand the foundation for a sustainable garden community.
Seongdong-gu District Mayor Yoo Bo-hwa said the community gardeners are "a steadfast partner in building Seongdong into a garden city," adding that the district would "actively support the gardeners so they can take pride in their work, and together cultivate a place where every resident can enjoy a beautiful garden through all four seasons, right in their daily lives."
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