As social problems caused by the climate crisis and the pandemic worsen, the importance of green spaces is increasing. As a result, interest in gardens, one of the most accessible green spaces in our daily life, continues to grow. Since gardens can accommodate not only social and cultural functions that can improve people’s quality of life (e.g., provision of relaxation and job creation), but also ecological functions (e.g., biodiversity conservation and carbon absorption), they can contribute to solving a range of social and environmental issues that occur around the world (Park et al., 2017). To respond to the growing interest in gardens and utilize the functionality of gardens to address various social and environmental problems, the Korea Forest Service has established a “Garden Promotion Basic Plan” to spread a garden culture and has promoted a range of policies in this area, and many local governments have sought to activate a garden culture by creating gardens. In South Korea, social interest in gardens grew after the creation of the Suncheonman National Garden, and so research on gardens began to rapidly increase in the 2010s (Korea Forest Service, 2021; Lee, 2021; Park, 2021). According to Park (2021), there were 394 research papers on gardens from 1971–2020, most of which focused on topics such as analyses, planning and design of gardens, and garden theory. In comparison, it seems that research on garden styles and types, and perceptions of and satisfaction with gardens is still lacking.

Meanwhile, woodland gardens are a type of garden that appeared in the British Empire in the late 19^th century when shade tolerant shrubs and small trees with colorful flowers introduced from India and China, including Rhododendron spp., Magnolia spp., and Camellia spp., began to be planted in the understory of tree plantations, arboretums, and other wooded areas(Elliott, 2007; Cox, 2018). In the early parts of its history, planting designs of woodland gardens were focused on providing color with shade-tolerant bulbs and flowering woody plants that bloom in spring and early summer. These days, however, the planting design has evolved to emphasize textures and forms, providing year-round interests which is achieved by the greater use of shade-tolerant perennials and pteridophytes, and utilization of native species (Darke, 2002; Wiley, 2014). This is caused in part by the newly arisen need to maintain ornamental value of the gardens throughout the year due to changes in usage patterns that have resulted from the publicization of gardens (i.e., donation of former private gardens to National Trust; Wiley, 2014), and in part by the influence of naturalism and environmentalism. Since woodland gardens typically possess a forest-like, stratified vegetation structure where woody plants take a prominent role, they can provide ecological and environmental benefits akin to those provided by forests, including cooling effects through transpiration and shading, and sequestration of carbon through the growth of woody plants and accumulation of soil organic matter. As woodland gardens can simultaneously provide both the aforementioned forest-like environmental services and the aesthetic and social services of the gardens, they can better contribute to solving global social and environmental issues, such as responding to climate change, than other types of gardens (Cameron and Hitchmough, 2016; Credit Valley Conservation, 2012; Hong and Lee, 2020). In addition, with increased labor and material costs, curtailed green space management budgets, and increasing regulations on crop protection agents and carbon-emitting equipment caused by changes in public perception of the environment, the means available for green space management are increasingly becoming limited worldwide (Cameron and Hitchmough, 2016). Garden types that adopt planting designs based on natural vegetation, such as woodland gardens, can provide an answer for these issues, as by applying ecological processes, including succession, the manpower and material input required for the maintenance of the gardens can be decreased (Cameron and Hitchmough, 2016; Hitchmough and Dunnett, 2008). Furthermore, as 62.6% of South Korea’s land area consisted of forests as of 2020 (Statistics Korea, 2020), the economic use of forests is important. The creation of woodland gardens will contribute to this aspect.

In South Korea, research related to woodland gardens began in the late 2010s, when research on gardens rapidly increased. The Korean Institute of Garden Design (2019) and Hong and Lee (2020) reviewed concepts related to forest gardens and used the Delphi technique with 12 experts to derive the values of forests and gardens: formal, scenic, ecological, historical/cultural, and useful values. Based on this, they established the definition and concept of woodland gardens in Korean context. Using the five values, woodland gardens were also categorized into four types: landscape/recreation, ecological preservation, cultural tourism, and research/learning (Korean Institute of Garden Design, 2019). Cho (2020) suggested that a brand and sense of place can be established by creating woodland gardens in a resort that stimulate various senses focused on wellness. CNU R&BD Foundation (2020) categorized the requirements for meeting woodland garden standards, and presented guidelines for creating woodland gardens according to environmental characteristics through an analysis of woodland garden examples in South Korea. Based on the five values of woodland gardens presented by Hong and Lee (2020), Hong et al. (2021) developed an evaluation index to distinguish whether a specific garden is a woodland garden, allowing us to evaluate various types of woodland gardens. To lay a foundation for creating woodland gardens with ecological stability, Nature and Forest Research Institute (2021) analyzed the composition and structure of the plant community dominated by each species, and the environmental characteristics of the sites where the communities of each species developed, targeting 35 representative and native woody forest species. Lee et al. (2021) summarized and organized the physiological and ecological characteristics of sciophytes in the context of their use in woodland gardens, and based on this, presented methods for planting and cultivating sciophytes. Industry-University Joint Research Institute of Gachon University (2022) categorized forest communities in South Korea, derived core landscape elements of forests, and proposed methods to apply them to woodland gardens. The types of woodland gardens presented by the Korean Institute of Garden Design (2019) were simplified and divided into two types: a natural type that emphasizes the attributes of ecological conservation, and research/learning; and an urban type that emphasizes those of landscape/recreation and cultural tourism. Naturalistic woodland gardens are a type that is created and managed indirectly based on ecological and dendrological methodologies, while Urban woodland gardens are focused more on meeting users’ aesthetic and landscape needs, created and managed directly based on landscape architecture and horticultural methodologies. Naturalistic woodland gardens are modified existing forests, while Urban woodland gardens can be created from either existing forests or bare ground where forests did not exist (Industry-University Joint Research Institute of Gachon University, 2022).

As such, it could be said that previous research on woodland gardens conducted in Korea has been focused on the creation of woodland gardens, including concept establishment, guideline development, typification/classification, and planting characteristics. It seems that the aim of such research was to establish a theoretical foundation for introducing a new concept of gardens called woodland gardens to the country. To promote a garden culture based on woodland gardens, it is necessary to understand the public’s demand for them, but since their concept was only recently introduced to South Korea, relevant research is still lacking. If woodland gardens are developed and promoted to meet public needs by determining the public’s perception of them, it is expected that they will contribute to the spread of garden culture, as well as to solving social and environmental issues occurring at home and abroad. Therefore, this study aimed to understand the public’s perception of woodland gardens, and investigate the public preference for each type of woodland garden through survey method.

This study aimed to determine the general public’s perceptions of each type of woodland gardens through a survey. The findings were as follows.

First, the survey found that most respondents recognized woodland gardens. They also appeared to prefer natural woodland gardens (NWGs). This suggests that the more faithfully the landscape preserved or emulated the forest structure, the higher their preference will be. However, since there may be differences depending on the garden area, as well as the season in which the presented images were taken and the resulting vegetation cover, it should be taken into account that these factors may have affected preference. Females tended to have a slightly higher preference for formal gardens over urban woodland gardens (UWGs) compared to males, but this is likely due to the color of the plant materials used in the presented images (Hurlbert and Ling, 2007). In addition, considering that the contents written by respondents in the free opinion section of the questionnaire included subjects such as complaints about difficulties in visiting the Korea National Arboretum (KNA) and comments on the UNESCO Gwangneung Forest Biosphere Reserve, it is possible that the term woodland garden was mistakenly perceived by some of the respondents as to referring the entire KNA, resulting in an illusion of high level of recognition of woodland gardens.

Second, based on an image analysis of such garden landscape using a semantic differential scale, both NWGs and UWGs tended to be perceived as having the attribute of comfort. However, there was a difference in that NWGs were perceived as having more natural elements, while UWGs were perceived as having more artificial elements. It seemed that the initial conditions of garden creation, i.e., whether forest vegetation was present, had a significant impact on visitors’ perception. However, since all the gardens presented as examples of UWGs were created less than 5 years ago and has just finished the establishment phase in the context of post-transplant management (Watson and Himelick, 2013), the perception may change in the future depending on the growth and development of the planted plants.

Third, the trait factors of woodland garden images were derived as comfort, orderliness, stability, and spatiality for NWGs, and comfort, modernity, diversity, and stability for UWGs. By analyzing the effects of the derived factors on preference for each type of woodland garden, it was found that comfort and stability affected preference for both NWGs and UWGs. Considering this, it seems that the key to creating effective woodland gardens is to provide a comforting environment for visitors and enable them to feel a sense of stability in terms of structure and planting. To create a space of this character, methods such as securing a sense of place through enclosure planting of woody plants (Jo et al., 2009) may be used.

Summarizing these results, the general public in South Korea had a high preference for NWGs that utilize existing forests and preserve their structures. This appeared to be due to the comfort provided by the scenery. However, UWGs may also receive the same level of preference as NWGs if the plantings mature sufficiently over time. Moreover, to secure green spaces in urban areas, the creation of UWGs will be more efficient than that of NWGs that utilize existing natural forests. Therefore, if woodland gardens with the trait factors derived in this study are created in the future, overall preference for woodland gardens can be increased, which may further lead to a quantitative expansion of such gardens. This will allow us to provide various environmental services in urban areas in a highly aesthetic form (Cameron and Hitchmough, 2016; Credit Valley Conservation, 2012), and can be expected to contribute to the spread of garden culture.

Since the concept of woodland gardens was introduced in South Korea not long ago, most research on the topic has been rudimentary studies including concept establishment and type classification. This study has significance in that consumers’ perception of woodland gardens was determined. However, as this study was conducted based on a survey using example images of woodland gardens, it had limitations in regards to the location of the survey and the choice of images presented to represent each type of woodland gardens. As such, there is a need to be more rigorous in controlling variables in future research, and it seems that follow-up research should be conducted targeting users and experts in related fields who have viewed actual woodland gardens, not just images. Furthermore, it is necessary to explore specific landscaping techniques and verify their effectiveness to ensure comfort and stability, which were found to affect the preference for woodland gardens.