I have been wanting to grow mint, but I rarely use it and I know from experience that mint can take over a garden in a heartbeat. Interesting, isn't it, how the plants you would love to run wild over your garden don't and the ones you don't want take off like wildfire. Mint falls into the latter category. Along with forget-me-nots, but I digress.

So here I am with a mint plant, but I have a plan. I have a few of those redwood planters and I don't like them anymore. It seems to me that wooden planters fall apart when they dry out over the winter and once that happens they just never recover. Plus they are too red. They don't complement the plants that eventually fill them, so I use them to hold stakes or whatever.

There it is, a derelict redwood planter, so I dig a hole, line it with landscape fabric, stick the pot in, fill it with dirt that came out of the hole and gently plant the mint. The hope is to contain the root system and provide us with enough mint to satisfy our meager needs. I'll let you know how this works.

I have what I like to think of as a deciduous hedge. It is now in its third generation of plantings.

You would think I would get discouraged. And you would be correct.

But now there are two ornamental crabapples: Kelsey and Royalty. They are starting their third year and I have great hope for them. But the spirea that was supposed to be filling in below them has petered out. I am weary of plants that do not thrive, that lack gusto and the spirea fell into that category. Although alive, with a few branches showing a little life and bearing a tenacious root system, they have been removed. Replaced with dwarf Korean lilac. Two of these went into this bed last year and they are looking excellent. There was a third that languished in a pot over the winter and that didn't seem to deter it in the least. Into the bed it went. The entire front of this bed is devoted to minor bulbs of all sorts. It looks like a bed at the Experimental Station in Fairbanks. But the plan is for the bulbs to bloom, fade, the lilacs take over with foliage and blooms, and all will be well. Along with the mint, I will let you know how this fares.

With this very early spring the delphiniums have absolutely bolted from the ground. It has been fascinating to watch their progress. Fortunately I staked them two weeks ago. In case you have neglected this task, get going. Staking is crucial for any plant that you do not want to topple in the wind, or those that fall apart from the center like veronica.

The delphinium has a hollow stem and I am fond of the Pacific giants, they provide a wonderful target for the day breeze that rages through here. You would think I would make my life a little easier and not grow them, but I cannot resist their loveliness. And they make fantastic dried flowers. Cut the stalks before the buds are fully open, hang upside down and prepare yourself to be dazzled.

I use pea fencing to make a cage around the delphinium plant. This has been my most successful attempt at staking them. It is readily available and will last you forever. I also use it to hold the raspberries up, and the bleeding hearts (a shorter fence). And even peas.

As of today the vegetable garden is completely planted. I have been waiting for warmth before I set out the green bean plants. They are under solar greenhouses so should be happy enough. They certainly looked good going in. The pumpkin is protesting. I started it way too early. This is a mistake that I seem to repeat, like history. It is suffering under its very own solar umbrella. I feel very guilty. But I also want pumpkins so I started another plant yesterday. Now I'm too late. Perhaps someone will be selling seedlings of Small Sugar pumpkins at the Farmers' Market and all will be well. Cross your fingers.

I took the floating row cover off the onions, garlic, leeks and shallots. They were getting so huge that they were pushing against the cover. They are cool weather plants so I am letting them fend for themselves. I am sure I heard them breathe a sigh of relief. But the cole crops are all covered and will remain so, to fend off the fly that lays the egg of the dreaded root maggot. I have written that so many times. But you really need to be aware of that fly, you could lose your entire crop to them and they really are easy enough to control.

Peas, radish, carrots, spinach, lettuce, chard are all up and looking very good indeed. Even the flowering sweet peas that I direct seeded (put the soaked seed straight into the dirt) are up. But I am grateful to my daughter-in-law, Erica, for starting eight seedlings for me. They are gorgeous and it is they that will provide me with flowers this summer. We'll see what happens to the direct seeded ones, they have some catching up to do.

I need to keep reminding myself that it is still very early in the growing season. I am looking for signs of life in plants that really should be coming on later in the season. Not everything blooms at once, fortunately. The goal, in your flower beds, is to have something blooming or at least interesting, all season long. Right now, that interest is the minor bulbs, primulas, arabis, trollius, doronicum, phlox subulata and little yellow poppies. All is well.

Rosemary Fitzpatrick has been gardening with gusto in Homer for 30 years. This year marks the 19th anniversary of her column.