These are strange weather times. Because the Earth has become hot, the rhythm of the seasons has been disrupted. Still, fall is ripening. I saw fall in gardens near Seoul. I liked the columbine swaying in the wind and the beautifully colored autumn leaves, but I liked hearing the stories of people finding their way in the garden. The season of fall has a mysterious power that awakens our senses and thoughts. I would like to tell you that story.
●Garden as a cultural enterprise
The place I went to after hearing that it had a well-maintained garden was The Stay Healing Park in Gapyeong-gun, Gyeonggi-do. From the entrance, the neatly built low stone wall seemed to offer a simple yet friendly greeting.
![Finding your way in the garden… Three Colors Autumn Garden Tour[김선미의 시크릿가든]](https://dimg.donga.com/wps/NEWS/IMAGE/2024/10/18/130242412.1.jpg "Finding your way in the garden… Three Colors Autumn Garden Tour[김선미의 시크릿가든]")
As you enter the road, you will naturally come across the ‘Wild Garden’. ‘Blue Angel’, a European tree species from the Cupressaceae family, is planted on both sides. European carnation ‘Pinky Winky’ and Sukrun, which had turned light brown, were creating a landscape reminiscent of the colors of German artist Anselm Kiefer’s ‘Autumn’ painting. I imagined that if the two plants played music, it would be a duet of violin and cello. The speed is adagio (slow)… .
At the end of the garden is a European-style building made of stacked stones. When I opened the door and entered, I saw a small chapel with simple stained glass in the front. I automatically sing a prayer. The more you look around this garden, the more you feel its natural, unassuming nature. Some gardens force you to appreciate them, saying, ‘The garden was created with this philosophy,’ but this was not the case, which was nice. I want the garden to be a place for empathy and sharing, not an object of boasting and preaching.
Birch trees are not planted in rows of equal thickness, but thick and thin trees are mixed at various intervals. The duplex accommodation named ‘Forest’ was built without cutting down the trees in the forest, so it looks like a tree house where trees and buildings are combined. When you look out from the inside, the autumn season comes into full view. On the hydrangea road leading to the zoo, the American scarlet leaves red berries behind the large faces of the hydrangeas as a background. The ‘Starlight Garden’, which is illuminated at night, has an unavoidable artificial feel, but the wine-colored apricot flowers seen there leave a lingering impression in my mind.
The conductor of this ‘Nature Symphonic Poem’ is Park Geun-sik, Chairman of DFD Group, well known for the shoe brand ‘SODA’. This company, which started as a shoe manufacturer in 1976, changed its mission in 2017 to ‘DFD LIFE. CULTURE’ and declared ‘a company that proposes a lifestyle and culture that combines clothing, food, shelter, rest, beauty, and fun.’ Meanwhile, The Stay Healing Park opened at the foot of Bori Mountain in Gapyeong. Even if you don’t stay overnight, you can enjoy the 60,000 pyeong garden while drinking tea or eating at ‘Nine Block’ within the park. Jeongwon started out as a manufacturing company and expanded its direction to lifestyle and culture.
●The garden that brought to life architect Siyoung Choi
When we arrived at ‘Farmer’s Daddy’, the garden of architect Siyoung Choi (68) in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, architect Choi was taking care of the garden. “The wedding of a Korean-French acquaintance couple is scheduled to be held in this garden soon. Since guests are coming from France, we need to maintain the garden well for the sake of the pride of the Korean garden.” This is a garden where his senses and experiences are woven. There is also a garden growing peppers and eggplants, sponges, creepers, and a scarecrow.
He is a star architect who has built luxury residential spaces such as Seoul Gangnam Tower Palace and Lotte World Tower Signiel Residence. It was in 2010 that he started turning the 2,000 pyeong field he inherited from his father into a farm-style garden. “I am a person who designs spaces, so I also designed the fields. I felt sorry for charging admission fees from guests, so I started planting flowers. “I guess I’m the first person to charge admission to a field. (Laughs)” He built a plastic greenhouse with a pointed roof and windows, sold tea there, introduced foreign garden magazines, and served as an evangelist for garden culture. After COVID-19, the garden will not be open all the time, but will be rented out or opened as needed. What does a garden mean to him?
“I was so busy with work that I lost my mind for a while. It was the garden that comforted me. Time in the garden passes slowly, in direct contrast to the fast pace of the world. If you don’t like the architectural design, you can erase it, but plants are living things even if you plant them incorrectly, so you have to wait at least a year. That’s different. “As I was comforted like that, I felt the mysterious energy of hope.”
He fell in love with the garden and one day declared: “From now on, I will only make garden-related architectural designs.” One of them is Eden Paradise Memorial Resort in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, which opened in 2017. He developed about 3,000 pyeong of the total 15,000 pyeong into a garden and created a charnel house for the living as well as the dead. It is a space of ‘creative innovation’ where life and death meet in the garden, where there is a hotel, cafe, and restaurant, and weddings are held in a memorial space. People come to see this garden.
Three years ago, I stayed one night with my family in Paradise Eden. As I was taking a walk in the garden in the morning, the rising sun illuminated the rectangular pond. ‘Every morning in the world is such a blessing.’ Architect Choi’s ‘Farmer’s Daddy’, which created the paradise of Eden, also has a small rectangular pond. He said, sitting on a simple chair by the pond. “The garden, a space of contemplation and consolation, saved my life.”
●A garden that nurtures gardeners
‘Seven Seasons’ in Gwangju, Gyeonggi-do is a well-known place for gardeners. This is a grassland garden that CEO Kim Jae-yong (60), who has been running a flower farm and teaching gardening classes in Seocho-gu, Seoul for over 20 years, purchased about 3,000 pyeong of land here three years ago and cultivated it. It is said that mainly guests from three generations of family, including grandparents, parents, and grandchildren, visit and spend leisurely time in the garden for several hours. Aster and perennials from the Aster family are in full bloom, creating an autumn watercolor painting. CEO Kim says as we walk through the garden together.
“The seasons are so amazing. Soon, when the frost comes, the green color from the grass falls out and everything turns brown. “Fall is the season when plants that had bloomed in spring and summer produce seed clusters, and the dynamic elements of silver grass, which sways like a candle, are most evident.”
As I listened to him, I thought about shaking. It’s not just plants that shake, so they’re probably humans too. Autumn is a season of abundant harvest, but it is also a lonely season of dropping leaves, shaking, and leaving. But in the middle of this fall, I was able to hear the story of his life. It occurred to me that that story could give hope to someone.
“After graduating from the Department of Horticulture at Shingu University, I was engaged in flower farming and was selected as an agricultural successor and toured advanced horticultural countries for 15 days. Their leisurely gardening culture was a shock to me, who only grew plants. At the age of 48, I transferred to Shingu University’s color design department in my third year, studied design, and then worked as a garden designer. But I wondered how long I was going to spend my life designing other people’s gardens. After obtaining a loan to prepare this place, we began providing gardening training for those who wanted to garden. A cafe or restaurant must also have a pretty garden to attract customers. “A new path in my life has opened up in the garden.”
Seven Seasons is a name inspired by the concept of a ‘garden in seven seasons’ developed by Karl Foerster (1874-1970), a gardener and writer who is called the ‘father of German gardening.’ Carl classified a year into seven seasons: early spring, spring, early summer, midsummer, fall, late fall, and winter, and focused on the beauty of the garden in each season. If a late fall or winter garden looks beautiful, it means that not only the garden plants but also the time in the garden are beautiful.
The cycle of seasons reflects all aspects of human life, such as birth, growth, maturity, and death. Even if you don’t have to go far, why not take a trip to a nearby garden in autumn and check your direction in life?
