Contact Information
Host Organisation
IFSA Region: Southern Europe
City/Region/Country: Istanbul, Turkey
Institution: Istanbul Tree&Landscape Co.
Supervisor: Melek Takmaz (melek.takmaz@agac.istanbul)
International intern accepted?: YES/NO

Intern
Name: Elif Naz Duman
IFSA LC: LC Istanbul
Contact: elifnazduman@gmail.com | Facebook | Instagram

INTERSHIP: Nursery at Istanbul Tree&Landscape Co.

Hello IFSA Friends,

My name is Elif and I’m from Istanbul, Turkey. I would like to tell you about my internship experience at the biggest nursery in Istanbul which I conducted in August-September 2019.

I study Landscape Architecture at the Istanbul University, Faculty of Forestry and we have an obligatory nursery internship at the end of the second year of our studies. From the beginning of the term, I knew that I wanted to do my internship at İstanbul Ağaç ve Peyzaj AŞ (Istanbul Tree&Landscape Co.).

Istanbul Tree and Landscape Co. were established in 1997 as a subsidiary company of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, to carry out the green field activities of Istanbul, to grow trees and ornamental plants, and to conduct scientific research on this subject. In addition to the projecting and implementation of landscaping, the company provides the supply of qualified plants, produces the landscaping products needed, and sells these products and services. Due to the diversity of the company’s work, I had the opportunity to observe and implement many different nursery management methods during my 4-week internship.

In the first week of my internship, I got general information about the units and departments of the nursery. Among these units, I had the opportunity to observe the applications in the soil field, the research studies carried out in the R&D laboratory, and what kind of equipment they have in use. Besides that, we made a fertilization application for ash, sycamore, and maple saplings with my other intern friends. While carrying out this application, we also made observations about plant diseases in the nursery along with our supervisors.

In the second week of the internship, we continued fertilization application and got information about the irrigation system in the nursery. We have learned about the machines in the irrigation system, the source of the irrigation tank, and the working periods of the system.

In the third week, we carried out hoeing and weed removal in tree pots, learned about grafting techniques and pruning, organized a terrarium workshop, and had a field trip to Hydrophonic Farming and Research Nursery at the Yıldız Technical University. This nursery is organized and supported by Istanbul Tree&Landscape Co.

In the final week, we were pruning roses and adding fertilizers. In addition, another field trip was organized to the Kemerburgaz Urban Forest by our supervisors. We observed the landscaping done by Istanbul Tree and Landscape Inc. in the urban forest.

There were some other applications and practices we have done in these 4 weeks and overall I would say it was a very productive experience. It definitely had a huge impact on my professional development. For further information about the internship, feel free to contact me.