Citizen-made gardens at the autumn festival in Maeheon Citizens’ Forest

If you come across a small flower field while walking, your pace slows down for a moment. If you look at which plants sit beside one another and where the tall grasses stand, a park with many trees and a garden that someone has tended look different. A garden is not only about the plants that grow, but also the choices of the person who placed them.

Maeheon Citizen's Forest in October is a place where you can explore such choices. The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that it will hold the Seoul International Garden Expo in this area from October 1 to 27, 2026, and operate competition and participatory gardens, garden industry exhibitions, and garden culture programs.

The viewer becomes the creator

The Seoul International Garden Expo is not only an event to view gardens, but also an event that brings together people who make their own gardens. The Maeheon Citizen's Forest Citizen Garden Contest also aimed to spread garden culture and revitalize the local community. The scope expands from viewing only spaces completed by experts to spaces in which citizens contribute.

Even in a small garden, there are many choices to make. Deciding what to plant is different from providing a place for it to grow. Considering the time it takes for plants to grow, a garden’s story does not end with its appearance on installation day. One way to view the garden is to imagine what the layout you see now will look like next season.

A little thought to take home

You cannot take an entire exhibition garden home, but you can borrow ideas for arranging a few plants. This can be done by placing leaves of different sizes together, or by considering how a display looks when standing and when seated. What you can get from the event is not only the product name, but also ideas about the viewing distance and placement of the plants.

The 2026 expo will consist of a main event in the Seoul Forest area and the Maeheon Citizen's Forest Fall Festival. It is best to check the fall event information when visiting Maeheon Citizen's Forest rather than combining the two venues’ schedules. Operating hours and participation methods for each program can be found on the official website.

It's okay to just take a walk around the forest and check out a few more gardens. You can start with that level of change, seeing the place where the plants are placed one more time on the same walking path.

Image information: This is an AI-generated concept image depicting an autumn garden. This is not a photo from the Maeheon Citizen’s Forest event.