[Photo] Lee Jeong-hoon, Gangdong-gu Mayor, Plants Flowers in Urban Area to Commemorate the 76th Arbor Day

Gangdong-gu Mayor Lee Jeong-hoon is planting annual flowers on the traffic island at Gildong Intersection on the 5th to create a citizen-participatory themed garden.

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Gangdong-gu (District Mayor Lee Jeong-hoon) celebrated the 76th Arbor Day by planting commemorative trees in the street forest area along Godeok-ro and beautiful seasonal flowers on the traffic island at Gildong Intersection, creating a meaningful event unique to Gangdong-gu.

Instead of the traditional Arbor Day events focused on forest greening in mountainous areas, this event aimed to overcome the COVID-19 crisis and heal the weary hearts of residents by promoting the creation of street forests within urban areas and expanding opportunities to establish a garden culture.

Last year, the district created a refined street forest blending nature into residents' daily lives along a 2.8 km section of Godeok-ro from Seonsa Intersection to E-Mart Intersection.

Accordingly, commemorative trees (flowering trees) were planted in the Godeok-ro street forest and the Myeongil-dong street garden area to once again practice cultivating garden culture in the city through this Arbor Day event.

First, on April 5th, from 11 a.m. for 20 minutes, a participatory garden creation event with citizens was held on the traffic island at Gildong Intersection.

To increase residents' affection and interest in garden culture, 2,600 seasonal flowers of four species including Osteospermum were planted under the direction of Park Gong-hyeong, a public landscape architect of Gangdong, together with members of the Gangdong Garden Culture Forum and local residents of Gildong.

Afterwards, at the street garden site in Godeok-dong in front of E-Mart in Myeongil-dong, an event was held to plant 63 Arbor Day trees of four species, including Rosa rugosa, a beautiful four-season commemorative tree that harmonizes with the street forest. However, due to the enforcement of Level 2 social distancing measures for COVID-19, prohibiting gatherings of more than 100 people, only residents were invited to each of the two areas (Gildong and Myeongil-dong) for about 40 minutes.

Lee Jeong-hoon, Mayor of Gangdong-gu, said, “As the importance and interest in urban forests and street gardens within the city increase these days, we will continue to strive to provide more opportunities for residents to make gardening a part of their daily lives and practice it.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.