The Barren South Korean Island That Transformed Into a Lush Botanical Garden

Husband and wife Ha Sangwoo and Lee Hwahyeong live on a small island off the Korean peninsula's southern coast. The highway nearby leads to an unpaved dirt road, which stretches through the woods to the bottom of a hill on which their garden is perched. Hawhyeong greets visitors as they reach the entrance. She smiles, guiding us up the zig-zagging path to the top of the hill overlooking the meticulously curated grounds filled with topiary bushes. There, we find her husband sweeping colorful leaves from an old, wooden desk. The couple is clearly prone to hard work—for the duration of the interview, they ceaselessly trimmed bushes, cleaned leaves, and moved dirt. The work of a topiary gardener, as I came to learn, is never-ending.

QUESTION: When did you start your topiary garden? What is it called? ANSWER: We are the fourth generation in our family who settled on this land. My great grandfather bought this land during the Japanese occupation and started his farm. Later, my grandfather, a civil worker, planted tangerine trees on it while raising my father. Nowadays, Namhe [Island] is connected to the mainland with a bridge, but it wasn't like this before. The island was much more isolated, so my father grew up here experiencing a lack of interesting things for children to do. As an adult, he decided to turn the farm into a garden for children to enjoy. He’d heard about topiary, but there were no resources available about it. Remember, this was the pre-internet era! So, he needed to gather all the information from foreign books by himself. He finally managed to make a topiary garden by self-teaching and experience, and called it "Topia Land," which we’ve kept to this day. Q: This style of gardening is not easy. What compelled you to maintain the garden? A: My father-in-law passed away two years ago from lung cancer. We saw his efforts to maintain this garden and learned a lot from him, so we followed his path. As you can see, our trees here are sculpted with shapes that children like the most. We are following the dream of my father. Q: What is your favorite feature in the garden? A: There is a bush shaped into a table and chairs which is my favorite.

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Q: What tools do you use most often to tend your garden? A: A lawnmower, gardening scissors, and trimmer. Our father used a traditional tool called Homie which means “short half-moon,” but we don’t use that anymore. Q: How do you share work with your husband? A: (Lee Hwahyeong): My husband usually does some work that requires more physical activity or heavy lifting. I usually spend more time raising our daughter. But I'm also a strong woman, and in most things, we generally do the same stuff. Q: What are some good plants to start with for a beginner topiary gardener? A: Japanese holly is the one! Or, let's say it’s the least difficult one! It grows very thick, so it’s easy to form it in various ways. The sign of Topia Land [you see] here, took about seven years to form. You can't see the tree's trunk now, as it should be cut from early stages. So, now, it looks like it’s just leaves.

Ha Sangwoo and Lee Hwahyeong are maintaining an inherited topiary garden that was created for the island’s children. Credit: Komeil Soheili.

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Ha Sangwoo’s father was a self-taught topiarist. Credit: Komeil Soheili.

While no tree is particularly easy, Ha recommends starting with Japanese holly. Credit: Komeil Soheili.

Rainy spring months—when everything grows rapidly—are particularly demanding of a topiary gardener. Credit: Komeil Soheili.

Ha Sangwoo and Lee Hwahyeong are maintaining an inherited topiary garden that was created for the island’s children. Credit: Komeil Soheili.

Some more elaborate figures take up to a decade to form. Credit: Komeil Soheili.

Q: What shapes would you recommend starting with? A: Some figures need more time, and some are more simple. For example, dinosaurs are easy, but cartoon characters are more complicated as they need more details, you need more time and hands to make it. Some of our trees need another ten years till they’re complete. Q: What trees/plants are the most difficult to work with? A: All of them are hard! At first, I thought trees would grow easily, but it's not like that. Some trees need a large amount of water, some do not. Some need to be shaped from the early stages, and each needs to be treated differently. None of them are easy, but if I wanted to point to one as the hardest, it'd be the Yew Tree. It grows very slowly. There’s an old saying that "it takes a thousand years to grow, and another thousand for its death!" It's hard to keep this tree healthy, and it’s not easy to bend into topiary shapes. So, we make simple human figures with it. Q: What advice do you have for people starting their own topiary garden? A: Don't start! (laughing). I had a dream to make one of those beautiful gardens where my children could play and I could live happily with my family beside nature. But in practice, I don't have any time to do anything else except gardening. So, if you aren't a hard worker, don't start unless you are ready for such a hard task.

Q: What's the most challenging part of tending your garden? A: Soon, when the rainy season comes, the whole garden will be filled with grass—and it grows very fast. It’ll take us about six weeks to mow and clean the garden, and just as soon as we finish everything and sit down to rest, we’ll look back and see that it’s already growing back. There won't be any days off for us, seven days a week we need to work on it. Q: What's the secret to being a successful topiary artist? A: Staying with the times. Nowadays, “garden healings” is trending, and we have a plan. This is a movement started in the Netherlands, and we are planning to adapt our garden to it. We are making space for people—especially the disabled or those who suffer from something—to join the garden and heal by topiary. Q: Do you think your daughter will follow your path in topiary? A: If she needs to do as much work as we do, I wouldn't recommend it to her. But if our business goes well and she earns enough to hire a few people to help, it'd be great if she could make this garden live as long as possible.

Some more elaborate figures take up to a decade to form. Credit: Komeil Soheili.

Rainy spring months—when everything grows rapidly—are particularly demanding of a topiary gardener. Credit: Komeil Soheili.

Tips and tricks from the husband-and-wife team behind a secluded topiary garden on a small Korean island.

By Komeil Soheili