Gardeners — start your seasons!

Only four more days until the Vernal Equinox and the start of spring.

Last week we sprang forward on the clocks for the annual daylight savings confusion.

Those teases in the United Kingdom actually refer to this time of the year as summer time. Wouldn’t that be lovely?

It’s barely even breakup yet, but now’s the time to shop for seeds, clean up the greenhouse, dig out the pots, and fantasize about those long days of midnight sun gardening.

The seed racks are already twirling their colorful displays at garden centers and in the impulse buying sections of the grocers.

There are plenty of varieties to choose from this year and prices for every budget.

Burpee Seeds has some nice mixes for salad enthusiasts with named varieties of cut-and-come-again lettuces, spicy mustards, and chicories with sexy Italian names that make you want to crack open a bottle of extra virgin olive oil: Lollo Rossa lettuce, Chicory Ceriolo Grumulo, Bull’s Blood Beet, Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach, Endive Frisee Galia, and Mustard Mizuna. Hmm, it sounds like the credits for a movie. “No Gardening for Old Men.”

May I have the envelope, please.

And the winner is . . . The Aphids.

Yes, even the garden pests are celebrating. The aphids just came packing with all their relatives in tow. But, I’m ready for them.

Did you know the active ingredient in many of those new green and organic bug sprays are likely to be found in your kitchen cupboards?

Horticultural oils are all the rage these days and herbal oils like thyme, rosemary, mint, peppermint, and cloves can be found in most of the new products on the market. Canola and sesame oils, along with Neem tree oil are some of the most widely used.

You could mix your own spray, but, be aware that horticultural oils are very refined so they stay emulsified.

Homemade sprays need to be mixed with a little soap and shaken constantly to get the larger unrefined oil drops through the sprayer. It is important that you only use a true soap such as Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap or Murphy’s Oil Soap, not dish detergent which can kill or burn your plants. About two tablespoons of Dr. Bronner’s mixed with one gallon of water will make a nice spray. Test it out on a leaf and wait a day or two to see if your plants tolerate it.

It’s probably the peppermint oil in Dr. Bronner’s Soap that kills the aphids. It does smell better than the very effective Neem oil spray.

Of course, I shouldn’t be sniffing the air after spraying anything on my plants. I should be wearing protective gloves and a respirator when spraying. I definitely need to go wash up and change out of my clothes after spraying for further safety.

Just because it’s homemade doesn’t mean it is safe to breathe it or let it stay on your skin. You just demolished a couple of hundred aphids with this spray. Think about it.

Another effective backup strategy for these pesky garden party crashers is the sticky trap.

Like brilliant yellow party favors, which traps nail white flies, aphids, and houseflies. In fact, anything that loves yellow and flies could be victim.

Sticky traps also makes a nice foil for those pink rubbery anti-aphid donuts hung on my roses. These donuts, called the Aphid Chaser from Oak Stump Farms, emit a natural insect pheromone that is supposed to mess up their ability to communicate.

Fortunately, there are other fun things gardeners can do to get ready for spring.

Washing your containers and seed pots is, well, a necessary bump in the road.

Turn up the tango music, snap on those rubber gloves, and arm yourself with a nice fluffy bottle brush. A hot bubbling scrub with any household detergent to your pots and they will be ready for gardening.

March came in like the proverbial lion this year. With any luck its roar will scare off the rest of Old Man Winter.

With temperatures holding above or near freezing, and almost eleven hours of daylight, I think we can safely say spring is around the corner.

Of course, March is famous for dumping a foot or so of snow during all the celebrating, so don’t dig out the lawn furniture just yet.

Brooke Heppinstall, artist and gardener, is the owner of Wool Wood Studio & Gardens, an art studio and nursery specializing in Alaska-grown perennials and shrubs. Visit online at Woolwood.blogspot.com.