Greenhouse Maintenance
& Cleaning Guide

It might be a boring old job, but cleaning your greenhouse glass is a very important job.

Not only does it generally keep your greenhouse looking nice, but it is also key to ensuring it’s working at peak performance, and protecting your greenhouse from rust or early damage.

Plus, it’s the best way to keep bugs, pests and other grime away from your precious plants.

That’s why, below, we’ve shared our full guide to greenhouse maintenance.

How to keep my Greenhouse clean

You’ll need to set up a regular cleaning schedule for your greenhouse – both regular quick cleans, and a series of deep cleans throughout the year.

We recommend that you time your deep cleans around the plants that you’re growing in there. For instance, this could be in the summer, just before your big plants start to flourish, or in the winter, just after your plants have grown to reach their peak. Either way, you want to make the most out of times when there’s the minimum number of plants in there!

In short, these are the best steps that you need to take to clean your greenhouse:

• Empty the greenhouse, and move the plants to another area of your garden
• Sweep and brush the inside, removing any debris
• Clean any greenhouse equipment, pots or other accessories
• Remove any leaves from the gutters
• Empty your rainwater barrels
• Clean the greenhouse glass

We’ll cover each of these steps in more detail below.

How to keep the inside of my Greenhouse clean

Without regular cleans, you’ll be encouraging pests and insects into your greenhouse. Obviously, exposing your thriving plants to intruding bugs is the last thing you want.

We’ve broken this general greenhouse maintenance process into 4 main steps:

1. Completely empty your greenhouse

To make sure you get into every nook and cranny, it’s best to remove everything. If you’re doing this in the summer, you might need to cover your plants, to protect them from the sunlight.

2. Sweep the inside of the greenhouse

Brush the debris of your shelves and framework, then sweep the base of your greenhouse, and dispose of the waste in your garden waste bin. Or, if your greenhouse has a soil base, rake the soil to remove the debris. By removing this matter, even if it is natural, you can minimise the risk of disease or bacteria from infecting your healthy plants.

3. Tidy out the exterior areas

Then, remove any leaves from your gutters, and empty your rainwater butts. You might also want to apply then rinse out an oxygen bleach solution inside your water butt, as this will prevent any algae from growing in there.

4. Clean your greenhouse accessories

Before you return them to your greenhouse, we also recommend that you regularly clean any of the equipment or accessories stored in your greenhouse, as this will help to prevent dirt from building back up again.

How to prevent rust on my Greenhouse

Generally, preventing rust is all about down to regular greenhouse maintenance.

If you bought your greenhouse from a trusted, reputable supplier, then it should not start rusting for many years.

However, the exception to this rule is if you allow a maintenance issue or a slight fault to develop into a bigger problem.

Key examples of this include:

• Cracks or damage to your gutter
• Overflowing gutter
• Cracks or damage to your water butt
• Overflowing water butt
• Faulty seals in your greenhouse glass
• A crack in your window
• Faulty seams in any watering units

The best way to prevent rust on your greenhouse is to regularly check for signs of any of the issues listed above. Then, if they do appear, deal with them quickly, before they’re allowed to get worse.

What is the best way to clean Greenhouse Glass?

Firstly, it’s essential that you clean both the inside and outside of your greenhouse glass. And, all of the glass needs to be cleaned. So, you’ll need to get a step ladder to reach the glass on the roof.

To clean the glass, we recommend using an oxygen bleach solution. This is the best way to disinfect the greenhouse, without causing any problems for the plants when they go back inside.

Or, if you can’t get hold of this cleaning solution, you can use any standard washing up liquid that you’d use in your kitchen.

Then, clean the glass using a large sponge, or a soft-bristled brush. Make sure you get really stuck into any cracks or crevices, too.

Take note, wood is the most difficult material to clean in a greenhouse structure, as its crevices can provide a refuge for all sorts of bugs, or for developing mould. So, when cleaning wood, we recommend using a non-toxic vegetable-based horticultural oil. This will get rid of any infestation problem, before it is allowed to get worse.

You might even want to use an old toothbrush here, to make sure you really get deep into the cracks.

What is the best Glass for a Greenhouse?

Although a number of different types of glass are commonly used for greenhouses, the best choice for greenhouse glass is toughened safety glass.

Toughened safety glass, is a safe, secure, weather-resistant and hard-wearing glass type, which makes it ideally suited for outdoor sheds and greenhouses. See more in our blog – what is toughened glass used for?

At Stevenage Glass, we sell 3mm greenhouse glass in the following dimensions:

• 610mm x 457mm
• 610mm x 610mm
• 730mm x 1422mm

Or, on request, we can also manufacture bespoke sizes of toughened safety glass for greenhouses. So, if you’d like to find out more about any of our services, don’t hesitate to get in touch.