Eight Outdoor Greenhouse Gardening Tips - Controlling Garden Pests

Greenhouse gardening can be a whole lot of fun - if you know what you're doing. A home greenhouse structure keeps your plants in an ideal situation, with plenty of sun, humidity, and warmth, and lets them grow well out of season. However, greenhouses are also subject to infestations of pests. If you're worried about keeping your new greenhouse free from bugs, these tips can help.

1. Clean and maintain your back yard green house structure regularly.

Like any other space, a greenhouse needs to be checked over, maintained, and cleaned. Scrub spots that might harbor bacteria or fungus, and makes sure you clean the entire greenhouse once a year. That means removing all equipment and plants, and cleaning the whole space with warm water and nontoxic detergents.

2. Check your plants before you bring them in.

Each one needs to be looked over for pests before it comes into the greenhouse. Otherwise, you could end up with an infestation from just one plant. Remove damaged stems and leaves as well, to prevent sickness in your plants.

3. Kill pests with cold.

If the worst happens, and your greenhouse does get infested, you may need to consider chilling the entire area. For perennials, this will only slow the growth, not kill the plants, and insect larva and eggs will die. This requires allowing the winter into your greenhouse, and is usually a last resort.

4. Keep gardening tools clean.

Soil can carry eggs and insects from outside that will damage your plants. You won't even know about it until they start breeding! Cleaning your tools in water and detergent will keep this from happening.

5. Think about your dirt.

If you're worried about bringing contaminated soil inside, try buying all your potting soil from a nursery. This will ensure that all dirt that enters your greenhouse is sterile.

6. Inspect plants daily to make sure that no infestations occur.

If you see a problem, remove the plant right away and treat it for pests. This will keep the infestation from spreading to other plants in the greenhouse. It's usually a good idea to create a quarantine space in large greenhouses that allows you to treat plants in isolation.

7. Add screens to your vents.

Insects can get in through your greenhouse ventilation. Putting wire mesh over it will keep most bugs out, while still allowing air to pass through.

8. Introduce natural predators. This needs to be done carefully, but bringing in ladybugs and praying mantises can create a natural control for your insect problem. Once you run out of pests, the insect predators will die off.