Green Thumb

Clementon employees Ellen Kovalchuk and Margaret Davenport recently were honored by the Borough Council for their involvement with Green Thumb Inc., although neither works with plants. The two women hold part-time clerical jobs in the Police Department and borough clerk's office through the Green Thumb program, which trains and places women and men over age 55 in various jobs at nonprofit agencies or organizations. Kovalchuk, 71, has worked for the Police Department for nine years, handling filing, light typing and receptionist duties.

Visions of Norristown rarely include scenes of flowers, vine-covered trellises and fruit trees, but the borough's garden club aims to change that. For the last 11 years, it has sponsored a garden contest that pits green thumb against green thumb in this decidedly concrete borough. This year's contest, scheduled for tomorrow, includes cash prizes for the winners in six categories: side-yard, front-yard and rear-yard flower gardens, vegetable gardens, window gardens and container gardens.

The Lower Camden County Regional School District has agreed to act as a host to Green Thumb Inc., a federally funded agency that provides employment for senior citizens. The district plans to place its first Green Thumb participant, who will be selected in the next few weeks, to work in the library at Overbrook Junior High School in Lindenwold, said Michael Schreiner, superintendent of the regional district. Schreiner said the school board requested that the person chosen reside in one of the region's seven towns: Berlin Township, Chesilhurst, Clementon, Lindenwold, Pine Hill, Waterford, and Winslow.

"Mudman" the flower child. "Mudman" with a green thumb. Somehow, the images clash with the police description of this big, burly, bearded and tattooed anti-social biker with a rap sheet as long as a climbing wisteria. Yet, there he was, daintily opening a sunflower, swigging cider with prison do-gooders, looking like a Neanderthal trying to smile as he discussed, of all things, gardening. Robert R. "Mudman" Simon, 43, who once put a bullet through the head of a girlfriend who wouldn't have sex with his buddies and is suspected of killing a cop in New Jersey Saturday night, worked in the organic garden outside Graterford prison, where he was serving a sentence for murder.

To those in the garment trade, Jack Marine comes from a family that peddles chic, recycled jeans to upscale shoppers. But to those in the 7-and-under set, he's not a businessman, or even Mr. Marine. He's Jack the Gardener. Marine, 40, took on this label a few years back doing what he loves best - raising vegetables in the backyard of his Main Line ranch house, teaching his children how to garden and sharing his knowledge and his produce with neighbors. What started as a hobby is evolving into a change of careers and lifestyle for him, his wife, Shelley, and their two young children.

When he listens to Christian music and reads the Bible, Alfred, 13, says he finds peace. And he regularly attends church. Alfred is in sixth grade, and his last report card had all A's and B's. He enjoys singing with the school chorus. His social worker said: "Just bring a game out and he'll play it. " He likes Monopoly, Scrabble and card games. Other interests include swimming, riding a bike, listening to music on the radio, and dancing if no one's around to see him. He also likes cooking, especially eggs and toast, and baking cookies.

Got a green thumb, a hose and some shears? Pennsylvania needs someone to take care of its palm trees. Yes, palm trees - a dozen of them tucked into the "conservatory" and cafeteria areas of the Capitol's east wing, the $124-million addition to the Capitol that was built a few years ago. State officials are searching for someone to maintain the dozen gangly palms and a smattering of other flowering plants and foliage for the next three...

Gina Graney never had a green thumb. No matter what she did, the plants she so carefully nurtured didn't make it. But as she lay near death in a hospital bed 11 years ago, a friend gave her a philodendron. Not only did Graney recover, but the plant flourished, so much so that she took cuttings of it and eventually raised another plant. Graney links her miraculous recovery to the equally miraculous survival of the philodendron. Now, she can even get other plants to survive.

When the opening-day crowds began streaming through the Philadelphia Flower Show yesterday, many people had tears in their eyes. It wasn't because everything at the Convention Center was so beautiful, which it was. "We've been here just 20 minutes," Karen Kerchner said, "and my allergies are going already. " All around her, other visitors were clutching programs and literature. Kerchner, who had driven down from Reading with her husband, Mark, was clutching a tissue. But, she said, gazing around at the magnificent floral, garden and landscape displays, "It's worth it. " She was not the only one who felt that way. On a lovely day outside - sunny and in the low 60s - the loveliness inside drew thousands upon thousands of people from far and near who couldn't wait one more day for a breath of spring.

They're coming home, most of them. God knows they're welcome. We sent them into the desert to fight a war that turned out far briefer and much less costly - in lives and money - than we had expected. And now they're starting to come home. A very special welcome home to the homeboys, Navy Lt.Jeffrey N. Zaun, of Cherry Hill, Air Force Maj. Jeffrey Scott Tice, of Sellersville, and Air Force Lt. Robert J. Sweet, formerly of Chester and Newark, Del., who have survived captivity.

John Thinnes insists he's "a basic gardener," but in truth, he's an inspiration to empty-nesters, suburbanites, and all the folks out there who wish they'd been "born with a green thumb. " Though he has a Ph.D. in group dynamics, Thinnes knew nothing about gardening when he started his grand project a decade ago. So, he attacked it like a true academic: He studied up; asked the experts a lot of questions; came up with a plan; and began to build, step by step, year after year. Today, Thinnes and his wife, Kathleen, enjoy an astonishing quarter-acre garden in their backyard in Ramblegate, a conventional tract-house development in Hatfield that was built in 1972.

Mary Seton Corboy grew up with private schooling, braces, and piano lessons, everything her parents thought would ensure a "clean-fingernail future. " As cofounder of Greensgrow Farms, a 3/4-acre farm and nursery in the middle of Kensington, Corboy barely has time for a personal life - bowling every Tuesday is "an excuse to see friends and drink beer" - let alone froufrou nails. Over 11 years, she's done her share of "bone-grinding, blister-making" work in the dirt. But these days, she spends way more time in the office at Greensgrow.

More communities should follow the example of Cherry Hill Township, which has approved a "green action plan" to boost recycling and reduce its energy costs. The progressive plan includes installing solar panels on the township municipal building, replacing old light bulbs with low-energy, longer-lasting bulbs, and giving residents incentives to recycle. The expansion of Cherry Hill's successful pilot recycling program to the entire township should have a significant impact on the environment.

Sharon Barkhymer uses words like thrifty and frugal to describe her penny-pinching gardening style, but other people call her just plain cheap. "I'm not cheap," she protests. "I'm responsible. " Let's add smart to this list of adjectives. Seen a "hot new plant" catalog lately? You can spend $50 for a hosta - or you can fill your car with gas. So the beleaguered Barkhymer's onto something: You don't have to spend your inheritance to have a beautiful garden.

Planting a tree used to be such a simple thing. For many, it was a simple act of beautification. Or perhaps a way to shade a patio. But lately, planting a tree has been elevated to a cause, a mission, a step - however tiny, as skeptics note - to stall global warming. In cities throughout the country, in countries around the planet, volunteers are muddying their knees and dirtying their fingernails as they plant more, more, more! Southeastern Pennsylvania's TreeVitalize program is finishing up a mammoth tree-planting spree - more than 14,000 - this fall.

During his nine years as head of the Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus, Ohio, Paul B. Redman sometimes lay awake at night worrying about making payroll. "We were in survival mode. You know how nonprofits are," he says. Those days are gone for the engaging Redman, who last month became the new executive director of Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, one of the nation's premier public gardens. At 40, he's the youngest chief executive in its 100-year history. "For something like this to happen, as a horticulturist, as a public-garden administrator, it almost took my breath away," Redman says.

Lyn Hecker and Dan Wolff have never met, but their gardening philosophies are remarkably similar: No muss, no fuss. It's all about family. And nothing compares to the feeling you get giving away fresh, homegrown produce all summer long. For vegetable gardeners, this is as good as it gets. Our plants are finally in the ground. Day by day, we watch them grow, heading out back first thing in the morning, after work, before bed, to drink in that indescribable fragrance, touch the leaves, pull the weeds.

Alice Bucher, who could be described as a perennial at the Philadelphia Flower Show, almost stayed away from the horticulture competition for green thumbs. Luckily for her, she entered - because the Kennett Square 69-year-old snagged first place in the pubescent (that means wooly or hairy) foliage plant, 8-inch or under class Saturday with a siderasis fuscata, commonly known as a brown spiderwort. It was also entered in a houseplant class. For the artistic division's "eternal spring" class, Bucher, who has participated in the flower show for 16 years, will enter today a tiny but dramatic creation of pink mini-springs, a sliver of fern, and specks of rice, all suspended in a lighted box. Bucher, who belongs to the Spade and Trowel Club in Chester County and the Countryside Garden Club in Hockessin, Del., had entered the horticulture division without high hopes.

Another day, another injury for the 76ers. This time, it's Willie Green, one of two rookies on the roster. Green, a 6-foot-4 swingman out of Detroit Mercy, suffered a torn ligament in his right thumb toward the end of practice Wednesday. "I was just going to the basket, and somebody tried to slap the ball out of my hand but came down on my thumb pretty hard," said Green, sitting glumly in the Sixers' locker room before last night's game against the Chicago Bulls. "I thought it was just a bruise.

Betsy Menna didn't start out her gardening adventures with a green thumb - more like all thumbs, and none of them green. The corn crop that first year had ears no longer than four inches. "They looked like miniatures," she said. The remainder of the harvest was no more impressive. After a few futile years of this, her husband, Nick, got her a magazine on organic gardening. Now her ample garden, covering the rear of two backyards (they bought part of a neighbor's property), at their Moorestown home is brimming with healthy vegetables, herbs, berries and flowers.