As a homeowner it is important to keep an eye on the exterior of your home.  Each season brings its own brand of wear and tear on your home’s exterior.  Whether we are talking about harsh winter conditions like snow and ice or stormy wind and rain or the hot beat of the sun, mother nature can be very harsh on your home.

It’s important to schedule regular maintenance for the exterior of your home and yard whether you have a single-family home or a town house.

If you live in a condo or COOP it’s important to make sure that the association board or the management company your building has hired is staying on top of required exterior maintenance.

By taking the time each season, or even after big storms or very windy days to do a quick inspection of the exterior of your home and quickly addressing any maintenance issues you find you can head off serious repair bills by nipping damage in the bud.

You may want to tackle the exterior and your yard yourself.  Whether you use your DIY muscles or hirer professionals to take care of these tasks, here are my suggestions for your to-do list by season.

Spring (Early March – Early June)

Ahh, Spring! Days are getting a little longer and the gloom of winter is lifting. Here in the Mid-Atlantic, now is the time to really examine the exterior of your house and check for any damage caused by winter’s harsh weather. Now that the weather is warming you can focus on those outside tasks you weren’t able to tackle and prepare your yard for summer before things get too warm. Pay attention to your home during those heavy rains that come with spring so you can avoid drainage issues or water damage.

Clean up leaves and branches from your yard and remove any dead foliage. Check which bushes need to be trimmed or removed. Be mindful to treat your grass with care when raking as new grass will be starting to grow.

Make sure gutters are intact and moving water away from the foundation. Consider extenders for your downspouts, make sure landscaping is sloped away from the foundation so water isn’t pooling. Check any window well drains, drains outside patio, basement or garage doors to make sure they are clear of debris, leaves and dirt so water moves freely away from the house.

Check your gutters during rain to make sure they are not overflowing or dripping where they shouldn’t, then either clean and repair them or hire a professional to take care of this task. If you have a lot of trees around your house, you may have to clean your gutters more frequently to keep the water draining properly away from the foundation.

Now is the time to go through your garden shed and inventory your tools and supplies. Check what needs to be cleaned, sharpened, repaired, or replaced. Remove rust and seal blades on your pruning tools, trowels, shovels, hedge trimmers etc. Prepare your garden pots and replace worn gloves, kneepads, watering cans, etc. Service your lawnmower, either check out maintenance videos on YouTube or take into the local shop. Get rid of gardening supplies you don’t/won’t use and organize your garden shed/supplies so you can easily access what you need.

Clean your patio and/or deck and check for any areas that may need repair. Bring out the patio furniture and planters, and clean and repair them so they are ready for use. If you decide to use a power washer check that your patio and deck material can handle it, always start slowly with lower pressure so you don’t accidently damage anything. Consider sealing, painting or staining your deck to protect it.

Inspect your exterior siding for damage and clean it.  Consider if it needs to be painted and plan for it. You may want to hire someone to power wash the siding depending on the material.

For windows, window screens, and screened in porches you may want to hold off until after pollen season before you invest time or money cleaning them. Better to wait a bit so you don’t have to redo this task and can enjoy the clean clear windows throughout the summer.

If you are a grilling ninja and grill year-round your grill is probably in good shape. But either way it’s a good idea to give your grill a deep clean and get it repaired if necessary. Make sure you have charcoal or propane available.  For safety, remember propane and charcoal grills should be 10 feet away from the house and all structures including your deck. If you have natural gas at your home, you may want to consider converting to a natural gas grill. The advantage is you can keep your grill right on your deck for easy access.

To address those little critters that are starting to come out you may want to hire a pest control company to deal with mice, rats, ants and spiders. Keep your garbage secured so racoons and other animals are not temped to raid it.

Inspect driveways and sidewalks for cracks and other damage and repair them. You may want to get your driveway sealed.

Time to plan your summer garden. Before you buy your flowers and bulbs, plan for your flower beds and planters based on how much sunlight each area gets and the type of soil you have.  Spring is a great time for pansies. Order mulch so your flower beds and yard look clean and neat.

Spring pruning can be done once plants start to grow and bud. But be careful some shrubs should not be pruned until after they bloom such as azaleas, camellias, and rhododendrons. Nonflowering trees and shrubs can be pruned as needed.

Summer (Late June – August)

Hopefully all your efforts in spring have paid off and your yard is a neat canvas ready for you to add those pops of color and interest for the summer with annual plants and flowers. Take the time to wrap up left over preventative maintenance so you can relax and enjoy your yard for the summer.

Plan and schedule a professional tree service to inspect trees for disease, dead limbs and potential pruning. Heavy branches with lots of limbs and leaves could come down in a summer storm and cause damage.  While you probably won’t need to prune your large trees every year, keep an eye out for potential problems and plan for every two to three years max.

Yep, use a rainy day to check those gutters again for any issues and make sure drains, gutters and window wells are free of leaves and other debris.

Clean your flower beds of early spring flowers that are not blooming and add some late blooming flowers to keep the color coming. Check with your garden center to see what plants will work best in your flower beds and planters based on how much sunlight your yard gets.  Now is the time to prune azaleas, camellias, and rhododendrons as they have finished blooming.

Keep your plants watered. Best time to water is early evening as it starts to cool down, don’t water in the middle of the day.

Mosquitos can really impact your enjoyment of your yard so keeping them away and eliminating prime breeding conditions is crucial to your outdoor living.  Eliminate areas of standing or pooling water. Even a small amount gives them room to breed. Make sure water does not pool in outdoor containers such as wheelbarrows, flowerpots, buckets, watering cans, garbage cans, kids’ toys. In short if it can hold water, it is a potential breeding ground.

Prevent mosquitos from breeding and flourishing in your yards. Try non-toxic solutions such as Mosquito Dunks for larvae and Mosquito bits for adults. If you have a pond or water feature, make sure the water is moving, a small pump or bubbler works wonders or invest in fish such as goldfish, koi, and mosquitofish who prey on mosquitos. Use Dunks in your gutter drains to prevent larvae.  There are sprays you can apply to your yard for long term control and various candles and lanterns that provide protection up to 15 feet.

If you already have a pest control service, see if they also have a non-toxic mosquito treatment. Keep your yard cleared out so there are no areas for critters to nestle in and call home.

Keep your grass short and remove debris where ticks can thrive, check yourself, your kids, and your pets thoroughly after being outside.

Fall (September – Early November)

Fall brings leaves and other maintenance tasks you need to do to prepare for winter which can be very harsh and unforgiving to your home’s exterior.

It is especially important in the fall to clean out gutters and downspouts and remove leaves and other debris, if you have a lot of trees around your home you may need to do this several times. Blocked gutters can cause water damage to your home and in the winter ice dams can form keeping water from draining from your roof this water can get into your home and cause a lot of damage.

Double check that your downspout extensions are in place and directing water away you’re your home.

Check for missing shingles on your roof and make sure seals around vents and the chimneys are intact and functioning.

Check for foundation cracks and seal them to prevent critters from entering your home. Bring in a professional to check if any of the cracks seem unusual, are wider than 1/10^th of an inch, are larger at one end than the other, seem to be growing, horizontal foundation cracks, large diagonal cracks, multiple vertical cracks near each other, cracks that go across the ceiling and down the wall.

Stay on top of the leaves, they can damage your lawn if left too long and it’s always easier to tackle it multiple times rather than be overwhelmed by a big job at the end of the season. Check with your town or city for the leaf collection policies, requirements, and pick-up schedule.

Clean out dead/dying summer annuals. Cut back your perennials and divide and transplant as necessary.  Prune shrubs before they go dormant.

Early fall is a good time to seed, aerate and fertilize your lawn.

Pick out and plant bulbs for spring flowers such as daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, etc. They will add color and fragrance to your flowerbeds in spring. In addition, over time, perennials take less effort and are less costly.

If you haven’t already, trim tree branches that are too close to your home or electrical wires to prevent storm damage or power loss. Again, you may want to hire a professional tree company to handle this.

As the weather gets colder take care of cleaning and covering your outdoor furniture and drain garden hoses and bring them indoors as well as turn off water to your outside faucets if possible.

Winterize sensitive plants, stake shrubs and young trees, consider wrapping bushed so they don’t lose their shape or get damaged by heavy snows.

Winter (Late November – Early March)

The outside of your home is where harsh winter storms and cold weather can do damage. Get these outside tasks done starting in late November and early December so you’re prepared for any snow or ice storms. And stay on top of certain tasks if a storm does happen.

Not the gutters and downspouts again!  Yes, again, a quick check to make sure they remain clean and free of leaves and debris.  If water is stuck in your gutters it will freeze and can pull gutters away from your home and even cause damage to your home, especially if ice dams form along the roof line.

Brush snow off nearby tree limbs, they can break from the weight of snow and ice, hopefully you have already trimmed those trees that are close to the house, driveway and powerlines and removed dead limbs so they will not cause damage.

Make sure you drained your outdoor faucets when you turned off the water and winterized your inground sprinkler system. This is easy to do and YouTube has plenty of videos on how to do this.

Make sure you have plenty of pet-friendly salt and de-icing products for your sidewalks, driveway, porches and decks.  Have a care with composite decks and stairs as they can be very slippery, and it may not be obvious.

Check you haven’t missed any winter prep steps from the fall and take care of them before it gets too cold.

Hope this list helps you with planning and scheduling those outdoor maintenance tasks!