Landscape, Irrigation & Termite Maintenance in Naples

Landscape maintenance in Southwest Florida is not really about appearance. Three of the items in this guide are structural: trimming protects the roof, mulch clearance protects the wall and the framing, and termite inspection protects the part of the house you cannot see.

The irrigation system, meanwhile, is the most common way a Florida home quietly wastes money and drives water into its own walls. (General education only — not legal, tax, financial, or insurance advice. Confirm current fertilizer and watering rules with Collier County or your municipality.)

Irrigation: the quiet money leak

Quarterly, run each zone manually and watch it. You are looking for:

• Broken or blocked heads. A single broken head wastes more water than the rest of the system uses.
• Heads spraying the house, the windows, or the street. Irrigation spray hitting stucco is a slow, steady, entirely self-inflicted way to drive water into a wall — and it runs on a timer, several times a week, for years.
• Dry patches, which usually mean a blocked head or a pressure problem rather than a watering-time problem.
• The rain sensor. Wet it and confirm the system skips. This is the part most likely to have quietly stopped working, and nothing about a failed sensor is visible from the house.

Adjust run times seasonally. The rainy season needs far less supplemental water than March does, and a system left on its dry-season schedule through August is watering a swamp.

Check your current watering-day restrictions with your utility or the water management district — they change, and they are enforced.

Trimming, and the cut to refuse

Clear all limbs overhanging the roof and any branch within striking distance of the structure. Remove deadwood.

For palms: take the dead fronds and the seed pods, and leave the healthy crown alone. Specifically, refuse the severe “hurricane cut” that strips the crown back to a few upright fronds. It is marketed as storm preparation and it is the opposite — a palm cut that way is weaker and more likely to fail.

Do it in May. Trimming is the highest-leverage storm preparation available because the damage it prevents is structural. After a storm is named, crews are unavailable and yard waste at the curb becomes a projectile.

Mulch, and the path to your framing

Keep mulch a few inches clear of the stucco and off the weep screed — the metal edge at the base of the wall that lets the wall drain.

Two problems, one habit. Mulch banked against the wall holds moisture at exactly the point the assembly relies on to dry out. And it is a covered route for termites, letting them reach framing without ever being exposed to open air.

Refresh beds, but do not build them up against the house.

Fertilizer: check before anyone applies anything

Collier County and several municipalities restrict nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer application during the summer rainy months. The restriction exists because summer rain carries nutrients straight into the watershed.

Confirm the current window and the current rules with Collier County or your municipality before you or your lawn service applies anything. The rules differ between the county and the municipalities inside it and they have been amended — so this is worth checking rather than assuming, including with a lawn service that works across several jurisdictions and may be operating on another one’s calendar.

Termites: the one that is usually not insured

Southwest Florida carries year-round subterranean and drywood termite pressure, and neither reads the calendar.

Have the inspection done annually and keep the report. If you carry a termite bond, confirm it is current and know exactly what it covers — retreatment only, or repair as well, and up to what limit. That distinction matters enormously and most owners have never read it.

Between inspections, watch for:

• Mud tubes on the foundation and slab edge
• Small piles of what looks like sawdust or pepper near woodwork — drywood termite droppings
• Discarded wings on window sills, especially after a swarm
• Any wood that sounds hollow when tapped

The reason this belongs on a maintenance calendar rather than a worry list: the damage is structural, it is usually excluded from homeowners insurance, and it is almost always found by an inspector rather than an owner — very often during a buyer’s inspection on a home already under contract, which is the worst possible time and the worst possible leverage.

Quarterly pest service handles the perimeter. Confirm your service is also checking for rodent entry and wasp nests in the soffits and lanai, not only spraying a band around the house. Once a year, walk the exterior and seal gaps at pipe and wire penetrations, soffit joints, the garage door seal, and dryer and range vents — with material that cannot be chewed through.

The schedule

Task	How often	When	Who
❗ Annual termite inspection	Once a year	Apr	Pro
❗ Trim trees back from the house — before storm season	Once a year	May	Pro
Irrigation system check	Quarterly	Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec	DIY or pro
Check the fertilizer ordinance before applying	Once a year	May	DIY or pro
Pull mulch back from the foundation	Once a year	Sep	DIY
Quarterly pest service	Quarterly	Feb, May, Aug, Nov	Pro
Seal pest and rodent entry points	Once a year	Sep	DIY

Related reading

• The Florida Home Maintenance Calendar — the full year, every system
• Roof, Stucco & Exterior Maintenance — the weep screed and why the wall needs to drain
• Hurricane Season Prep for a Naples Home — where trimming sits in the May list
• Common Problems in Older Florida Homes — including what termite damage looks like