Bipeds of Brookland: Christina Scheltema

Posted by Abbott Klar Real Estate on Friday, July 21st, 2017 at 1:31pm

Bipeds of Brookland: Christina Scheltema
Christina Scheltema

Christina Scheltema’s grandparents were Dutch immigrants who met at the Dutch School of Landscape Architecture and came to the US in the 1920s. They settled in the Washington area and left her with a love for plants. “I’ve been gardening since I was knee high to a grasshopper.”  She studied Biology at Millersville University of Pennsylvania, and now works as a regulatory manager for EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs.

Christina has lived in Brookland and walked her two dogs around the neighborhood since 1994. When she moved “My mother asked me if there were any Catholics in the neighborhood and I laughed, and said ‘Mom, I’m surrounded.’”

She always appreciated the friendliness of neighbors. “I remember the first time I went for a walk in the neighborhood and I found the people on the street would just greet me. That wasn’t something they did across town… It is so wonderful to be in a neighborhood with a lot of green space, with the monastery up the street is just a huge blessing.”

She has been coming to the gardens at the Franciscan Monastery since she moved here and has been a member of Monastery’s Garden Guild for over 5 years. The Garden Guild uses space behind the monastery and volunteers to grow over 5 thousand pounds of vegetables each year, which are donated to organizations including DC Central Kitchen, The Capital Area Food Bank and St. Anthony’s emergency food pantry.  Christina maintains an herb garden for the Garden Guild, which provides herbs to include with food donations.

“I helped to found the old Brookland Community Garden in 1996.” For about 10 years it provided space for neighbors to plant vegetables on a parcel of CUA land by the metro.  She now grows her own vegetables near Ft. Totten at the Mamie D Lee Community Garden.

Christina also teaches gardening workshops at the Monastery and at Rooting DC and this year also taught through DC Department of Parks and Recreation. She says she would like her epitaph to be “She scattered seeds and they grew.”

Bipeds of Brookland is a weekly series introducing the people who make Brookland their home, one step at a time. Photo and article by Tom Sabella

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