One of the tasks you should think about this month is cleaning your greenhouse. Doing so will help to ensure pests don’t take up residence there over the winter.
You should make sure you set aside a calm, dry day to carry out the task – hopefully, there’ll be a few of these around in the coming month.
Remove your plants and place them in a sheltered area with fleece protection. Then, brush or vacuum the greenhouse surfaces to remove all debris for destruction or removal from the garden.
Use disinfectant or detergent to clean the structural parts of the greenhouse. Hot solutions are usually the best for carrying out this task. While specialist greenhouse cleaners can be obtained, it’s also possible to use domestic cleaning products.
Wash the glass inside and out, but if the material is plastic, test the cleaner on a small, inconspicuous area to ensure it does not damage the surface.
Use a flexible scraper to take care of dirt trapped between panes and replace any broken parts, such as vent controllers and draught excluders. Alternatively, you could use a gentle jet wash attachment on the end of a hose.
Check your panes to make sure there are no cracks or other damage. If you find some and decide to replace them yourself, you should make sure you wear safety gloves and goggles.
Throw out any plants that are dead or dying plants, weed plant beds and remove any dead or dying leaves from plants.
Should you decide your greenhouse needs it, you can paint the frames using a wood preservative, taking care not to touch any of the plants with the solution.
Once you’ve finished the job, your greenhouse will be ready to endure the winter months. Of course, you should take care that you don’t put too much weight on glass surfaces while you’re carrying out maintenance work – otherwise, you could end up with a bigger repair job on your hands.
