Seoul City opens vegetable garden at US ambassador's residence

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, fourth from right, Bruni Bradley, third from right, the wife of U.S. Ambassador to Korea Harry Harris, and Agriculture Minister Lee Gae-ho, sixth from right, plant crops indigenous to Korea and the United States in a vegetable g

By Kang Seung-woo

Seoul City opened a vegetable garden inside the residential compound of the U.S. ambassador to Korea, Wednesday, to grow crops indigenous to Korea and the United States.

According to the metropolitan government, the garden spans about 330 square meters of unused land at the residence and it will be used to grow native Korean crops such as lettuce, red pepper, spinach, eggplant, sweet squash and sesame leaves, together with American crops like tomatoes, sweetcorn, romaine lettuce, peanuts and cabbage.

The vegetable garden was proposed by Bruni Bradley, the wife of U.S. Ambassador Harry Harris, who values the importance of agriculture, according to Seoul City.

The city government held an opening ceremony there, attended by Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, Deputy Chief of Mission Rob Rapson, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Lee Gae-ho and National Agricultural Cooperative Federation Chairman Kim Byeong-won.

The local government plans to use the vegetable garden for hands-on education for students of Deoksoo Elementary School near the residence and Dwight School Seoul.

The students will make food, such as pizza and vegetable pancakes, from produce grown in the garden, to learn the importance of the environment and food, it added.

A gardener from the U.S. ambassador's residence will be in charge of routine management of the crops, including watering and weeding, while another experienced gardener entrusted by the city government will make a weekly visit to manage the overall condition of the crops.

The spring crops are to be harvested from May to June, and autumn crops will be planted and harvested in the second half of the year.

“The vegetable garden shows cooperation and friendship between Korea and the U.S.,” Mayor Park said.

“I hope that this will become a symbol of the two countries' close relations and a place of education.”