From wild grasses to traditional crafts, Korean gardens trace deep roots of K-culture
Cho Ki-chun and Oh Jung-sook, winners of the gold prize in the citizen garden category at the 2026 Seoul International Garden Show, pose at Seoul Forest in Seongdong District, Seoul, June 11. Photo by Yoon Ki-hoon
The letter “K” seems to be used everywhere these days for nearly anything Korean. Yet long before the Latin alphabet reached the Korean Peninsula, there were mountains and flowers and people who lived alongside them.
That is why gardening, bringing together traditional culture and Korea’s natural landscape, is emerging as a new language of Koreanness.
The theme for this year's competitions, held as part of the Seoul International Garden Show, was “The Wave of Seoul.” The show, which opened May 1 and runs through Oct. 17, challenged participants to capture Seoul’s identity and cultural appeal through the language of gardens.
Winners were selected in three categories: international, student and citizen. Although they each presented interpretations of their own, all the participants agreed that their inspiration came from Korea’s landscapes and traditional culture.
Putting overlooked wild grasses center stage
Gardening is increasingly becoming less confined to landscape specialists and more accessible as a hobby for ordinary citizens. The winners of the citizen category, Cho Ki-chun and Oh Jung-suk, were drawn into gardening almost by accident while working in the fashion and education industries, respectively. After meeting through a local gardening program, they formed a team for the competition.
Together, they created a garden named “Sodam: Wild Grasses, Masters of the Forest.” In place of showy ornamental varieties, they filled the space with native Korean plants such as jetbead, violets and umbrella plants, all wild plants that are often overlooked.
Cho and Oh said they made the choice because they believe biodiversity is one of nature’s most important aspects.
“It is a modest, understated garden,” Oh said. “But nurturing a healthy and diverse ecosystem is more important now than ever, as we feel the effects of the climate crisis more acutely with each passing year.”
Cho added: “Instead of trying to control nature and use it as we please, we humans must act for its sake.”
A garden inspired by najeonchilgi
A four-member team from the department of horticulture, biotechnology and landscape architecture at Seoul Women’s University won first place in the student category. Its members, Kim Ha-yeon, Park Ju-eun, Kim Sun-woo and Lee Dae-eun, said they drew inspiration from traditional mother-of-pearl inlaid lacquerware called najeonchilgi for their garden.
They first placed black and white gravel and sand over the soil to form the garden’s foundation, before planting flowers in a range of colors to evoke the iridescent sheen of mother-of-pearl.
The winners in the student category pose at Seoul Forest in Seongdong-gu, Seoul, June 11. Korea Times photo by by Yoon Ki-hoon
It was the team's leader Kim Ha-yeon who first proposed the idea and drew the team’s attention to the artistic qualities of traditional Korean crafts.
“There is a giant, and I mean giant, inlaid wardrobe at my grandmother’s house,” Kim said. “I remember seeing deer, flowers and all kinds of natural imagery on it. I thought it was a craft deeply connected to nature and something distinctly Korean.”
“I had always wanted to create work that expressed my thoughts and philosophy about the world, and through landscape architecture and design, I realized I could express who I am.”
Tracing hallyu back to the mountains
Writer Moon Sung-hye, 56, won first place in the international category. As the CEO of a landscape architecture and design firm, after contemplating the origins of the Korean wave, she settled on the image of a mountain.
“In the past, mountains provided food and medicinal herbs while also serving as places for leisure and the arts,” Moon said. “Ultimately, they are places where generations of Korean life and culture have accumulated.”
Moon Sung-hye, winner of the show garden category at the 2026 Seoul International Garden Show, speaks during a Hankook Ilbo interview at Seoul Forest in Seongdong District, Seoul, June 11. Photo by Yoon Ki-hoon
That is why her garden, titled “The Origin of the Wave,” resembles a small mountain. A low mound is enclosed by a stone wall, with wooden benches arranged around it to evoke a mountain trail.
She planted species commonly found along mountain paths that are also used in everyday life, including herbs and flowers used both for eating and cosmetics.
“I hope visitors will remember each plant for its own story, rather than simply thinking, ‘Oh, the flowers are pretty,’ and then forgetting about them,” she said.
“The Origin of the Wave,” is seen at Seoul Forest in Seongdong-gu, Seoul. It took the gold prize in the show garden category. Courtesy of Moon Sung-hye
Mountain cherry trees grow in “The Origin of the Wave,” a garden by Moon Sung-hye and Kim Seung-soo at Seoul Forest in Seongdong-gu, Seoul.Courtesy of Moon Sung-hye
In Korea, where apartments make up a large share of housing, gardening was once seen as a hobby far removed from everyday life. The winners’ stories, however, suggested otherwise, showing that people in cities also long for nature and greenery, and gardens help them recover that connection.
“As humans are also part of nature, we need poetic experiences that awaken the senses,” Moon said.
Her words captured why gardens are finding a place in everyday life.
This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.