Don't let it rain on your parade

Getting your glasshouse ready for winter.

The tomato, cucumber, aubergine and sweet pepper plants – all of them ideal for watering with the Irrigatia solar powered system – are now coming towards the end of their useful life so use this as a wake-up call to get the glasshouse ready for winter.

After you have harvested your fruit and vegetables and lifted the plants, carefully remove the Irrigatia system and flush it with clean water then hang it up in the greenhouse for the winter. Leave the controller in place and switched on to number one to maintain a minimal charge in the batteries.

Water butts and barrels should be thoroughly cleaned in January or February, after the autumn rains have washed rubbish off roofs, and whilst there is still plenty of rain to come. Make certain the inlet filter is clean and properly in position, 10cm above the bottom of the barrel.

Autumn/early winter is the ideal time to clean the inside and outside of the glass in the greenhouse. Clear out plants, weeds, pots, trays and anything else that can harbour pests and diseases. A hosepipe, brush and cheap car shampoo (no wax) does a good job inside and out. Use a sprayer to apply dilute shampoo, brush thoroughly before rinsing with a jet from the hosepipe. Remove moss with a wooden stick. As an added prevention to infection from pests and diseases, you can spray interior and external surfaces with a dilute greenhouse disinfectant.

In dry conditions try to stop leaks in the roof glass. One way is to use a special clear, self-adhesive tape available from traditional iron-mongers. If you have sliding doors, give the runners a spray of aerosol lubricant.

Don’t use your greenhouse as a store cupboard. Before you know where you are it will be time to be getting the seed trays out in readiness for the 2017 greenhouse crops all, of course, watered using the Irrigatia solar powered watering system.