Under a new project implemented in İstanbul's Bağcılar district, the most crowded district in the city with more than 700,000 residents, people will have an opportunity to take a breath of fresh air and momentarily forget İstanbul's turbulence. As part of the project, titled “Nostalji Bahçeleri” (Nostalgia Gardens), a cherry orchard was opened last week in the Kirazlı neighborhood in Bağcılar. The cherry garden has 84 shrubs and a café. People have already started bringing their picnic baskets to the cherry orchard -- it is a perfect spot to spend time during the summer season.Bağcılar Mayor Lokman Çağırıcı, who has been living in the district for approximately 33 years, noted that he was eating cherries in a neighborhood named after renowned cherry orchards (“Kirazlı” means “cherry”). Noting that Bağcılar, which is home to migrants from countries such as Bulgaria, Greece and Bosnia and Herzegovina, is a representative sample of Turkey, Çağırıcı said that thanks to their new project, people who have been living in the city after leaving their verdant hometowns will remember their pastoral roots.
Çağırıcı said that local people have shown great interest in the orchards. Stating that these orchards are good places for people to entertain during the summer, Çağırıcı pointed out that many people have called the municipality to ask when more orchards will be opened. Çağırıcı added that they are planning to open an apricot orchard in the beginning of July in another neighborhood, while a grape orchard will open for the public in September.
According to Çağırıcı, the project also aims to give children who play with their friends amidst apartment blocks a chance to spend time in these orchards and experience green areas. Çağırıcı is very excited by the project. When the cherry orchard opened last week, he gathered cherries to eat with locals at the orchard's opening ceremony. If you ask how apricots or grapes could be grown in İstanbul, Bağcılar Municipality Parks and Gardens Manager Hakan Özipek says that they determined which fruits to plant in the orchards after a thorough soil test. Stating that it is difficult to grow fruits or vegetables in an environment surrounded by apartment buildings rather than green areas, Özipek noted that they placed beehives in each orchard to assist with pollination. “We're planting shrubs in every orchard so that fruits can be broken off easily by people to eat. There is one gardener and one security guard for each orchard. There's no charge to enter these orchards. Our municipal officials provide a barbecue grill for every family coming to the orchards for a picnic. In addition, there are cafés in the orchards with reasonable prices.
People whose neighborhoods do not currently have an orchard are waiting anxiously for municipal officials to open more of them. So far cherry, apricot and grape orchards have opened in Bağcılar's neighborhoods. The municipality is also planning to open gardens for other neighborhoods in the district.
