Landscaping Careers You'll Love Year-Round

The landscaping industry is growing, and industrious landscape professionals will find plenty of opportunities in a range of job types, from arborist to architect and installer to landscape designer.

Homeowners and businesses need their property to look well-groomed and offer curb appeal. The right landscaping goes a long way toward meeting those goals. Landscaping is growing at an annual rate of 3.9 percent. In fact, it is a $78 billion industry, according to the National Association of Landscape Professionals, and employs about 1 million people.

Clearly, there are many opportunities to dig into the landscaping profession! Further, landscaping career pathways offer significant growth potential.

Take a look at these landscaping job descriptions, and you'll find plenty of variety available:

Nursery & Greenhouse Production

Landscaping jobs in nurseries and greenhouses teach you about plants. You'll learn about growth cycles and production systems. You would work outdoors on the company's property, with your job being to grow plants, trees, shrubs, and flowers. Tasks include planting, pruning and controlling weeds, fertilizing, and controlling insects. On-the-job training (OJT) is generally provided, with seasonal jobs paying from $8 to $18 hourly and year-round, regular jobs ranging from $22,000 to $65,000 annually.

Landscape Installation

Landscape installers work with their hands and like bringing beautiful landscapes to life. Installers implement design plans that landscape architects or designers create. They install both plants and hardscaping elements like rocks, wood, and blocks. Your installation job might take you to parks, office or apartment buildings, shopping malls, or golf courses. Preparing for a landscaping installation career is done through OJT or a technical certificate, which could increase your value. Seasonally, installers earn $12 to $25 an hour, and full-time landscaping installers earn $25,000 to $88,000 annually.

Arborist

Arboriculture is the landscaping career involved with caring for our largest plants; arborists take care of shrubs and trees of all sizes, most often in urban areas. Monitoring for insects and disease, fertilizing, and pruning are some of the tasks of an arborist. Some of these activities will often require you to be high in the air, so keep that in mind. Though employers will typically train and certify you for this position, a two-year certificate from a technical school is helpful. Seasonal arborist positions typically pay $14 to $18 per hour, with full-time arborist landscaping salary positions ranging from $32,000 to over $90,000 annually.

Landscape Management

Landscape management professionals work to preserve a homeowner's or business owner's landscape investment. These landscaping jobs are as simple as keeping the grass cut and the weeds trimmed at homes or as elaborate as caring for trees, bushes, flowerbeds, and other landscape elements at luxury resort properties. You might seed, aerate and fertilize lawns, mulch flower beds, and control weeds and insects. Training for landscape management jobs is OJT, with seasonal jobs paying from $10 to $32 per hour and full-time positions paying $23,000 to $125,000 per year.

Irrigation Specialist

Irrigation specialists design and install landscape sprinkler systems for houses, parks, businesses, and golf courses to keep plants and grass optimally watered and thriving. Irrigation professionals are important to get water to plants and recapture waste water. Most irrigation specialists learn OJT, but technical certification is helpful. Seasonal positions pay $12 to $20 an hour, and full-time positions pay from $25,000 to $100,000 annually.

Landscape Designers

Landscape design is creating the landscape, and designers use computer-aided design (CAD) software to see what the landscape will look like upon installation and in the future. Creativity and style are what makes landscape designers successful. Education for landscape design typically requires at least an associate's degree in landscape design, with a bachelor's degree preferred. Landscape designers make $17 to $30 seasonally and $35,000 to $135,000 annually.

As you can see, there is significant opportunity in the industry. The most challenging aspect of your landscaping job search just might be which area of the profession to concentrate on!