ZELIENOPLE - It's a small world.

That adage applies to the Melting Pot Garden at Glade Run Lutheran Services,

a residential treatment facility for troubled youths.

Visitors to the Melting Pot, a therapeutic horticultural program project done by the children on campus, can travel around the globe inside the fenced area of the garden patch.

"We have 13 raised beds and the kids chose the themes and the countries," said Julie Wahlenmayer, horticultural program supervisor.

"The kids did all the research in school. We talked about the different plants and things would pop up - like peanuts."

Peanut plants have found root in the Melting Pot's African garden.

"We ordered from catalogs and nurseries," said Wahlenmayer. "Local nurseries were very helpful in locating different plants.

"We have a limited budget and had lots of donated plants. All the citrus plants were donated by community members or volunteers."

Some of the less exotic plants were started from seed in the campus greenhouse in early spring, said Liza Thornton, assistant to the program.

Some annuals, like one of Thornton's favorites, the Envy zinnia, found their way into the Ireland garden simply because the blooms are a lovely shade of green. Envy zinnias stand near plants nearly synonymous with the Emerald Isle: shamrocks whose tri-part leaves are actually bronze.

The Melting Pot Garden is decorated with many props to express the themes. While the Brazilian garden doesn't have a real coffee tree because of the shade requirements, the children decorated a painted plywood cutout of a tree with coffee mugs.

A two-dimensional representation of the Taj Mahal stands beside a curry plant in the garden representing the subcontinent of India. All the cutouts were made by volunteers.

Scarecrows, decked out in Mexican sombreros, Japanese kimonos and African dashikis stand guard.

"We had a young man doing an internship for his senior project and (we) gave him a list to dress the scarecrows," said Thornton. "He went to secondhand shops to hunt for costumes."

Aside from the benefits of digging-in-the-dirt therapy that every gardener knows, coordinators say the resident children of Glade Run build self-esteem through beginning, doing and completing a project.

They have ownership in a task visibly well done. The garden is a favorite spot for resident children to bring their visitors."The therapists will often bring the kids here just to talk about issues in a less formal atmosphere," said Thornton.The Melting Pot Garden was open to the public recently so the community could enjoy it as well.In preparation for the open house - or open garden tour - the children weeded beds, spread mulch and made everything picture perfect.Since pesticides are not used in the organic garden, hands-on tending is required."Squishing bugs is just part of the maintenance," said Thornton."I like the beetles, but not the bugs flying around my head," said Deven, 14, of Wilkinsburg.Unlike the resident youths on campus, Deven is among a group of inner-city children bused in to attend Glade Run's summer day camp.When he's at Glade Run to enjoy the outdoor amenities of the campus, he helps to tend the gardens."I like the hot peppers, the peppermint plants, tomatoes and the sunflowers," he said."He's a great all-around garden helper," said Thornton.Maggie, 14, of North Hills is also a day camper and Thornton's "best dead header and weeder."Maggie doesn't mind garden bugs at all."I get to scare people with bugs," she said. "Bees are fun to handle and I'm not allergic."When it's as hot and sunny as it has been recently, each resident child at Glade Run spends only about 20 minutes per week tending the raised beds. But that doesn't mean they aren't learning for the rest of their two-hour weekly block dedicated to the horticultural program."We do life skills things," said Wahlenmayer.After harvesting the food grown in the garden, they cook with it. The kids baked zucchini bread and will make stir-fry from the various crops in the Chinese vegetable garden.The scented plants of the French garden will be harvested and used to create potpourri, lip balm and perfume.Last week, the kids created Pictionary cards describing the plants and their uses. They then played the game inside the air-conditioned comfort of the Specialty Services Center while the heat and humidity made the outdoors unpleasant."There's been a horticultural program at Glade Run since 1800s," said Wahlenmayer. "It was a farm as well as an orphanage."The therapeutic horticultural program has been in its current configuration since 1995. Each year, the theme in the gardens is different.