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The differences between grounds keepers and gardeners can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a grounds keeper and a gardener. Additionally, a gardener has an average salary of $32,912, which is higher than the $30,535 average annual salary of a grounds keeper.
The top three skills for a grounds keeper include GRASS, PET and lawn care. The most important skills for a gardener are GRASS, mowing, and hand tools.
| Grounds Keeper | Gardener | |
| Yearly salary | $30,535 | $32,912 |
| Hourly rate | $14.68 | $15.82 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 5% |
| Number of jobs | 11,534 | 5,411 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 48% | Bachelor's Degree, 44% |
| Average age | 41 | 41 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
A groundskeeper's job responsibility is to maintain and modify outdoor areas such as college campuses, parks, gardens, etc. Your major duty is to carry out routine maintenance, planting, and gardening of a business or park's landscape. You may have to perform duties like mowing and maintaining lawns, planting new greenery, and trimming shrubs. Other duties you may likely carry out are watering, fertilizing, mulching, and applying pesticides. In all, the goal is to maintain the grounds of the place where you work.
Gardeners are skilled employees who are responsible for monitoring the health of all plants and trees while maintaining the landscape of a garden. These gardeners are required to trim lawns edges while using rakes and brooms to remove lawn clippings and clear other debris from the ground. They need to use various gardening tools to perform basic pruning while neatly shaping bushes and trees to the desired design. Gardeners must also apply liquid fertilizers and chemical control agents to remove weeds and protect the attractiveness of the landscapes.
Grounds keepers and gardeners have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Grounds Keeper | Gardener | |
| Average salary | $30,535 | $32,912 |
| Salary range | Between $24,000 And $37,000 | Between $22,000 And $47,000 |
| Highest paying City | Seattle, WA | Union City, CA |
| Highest paying state | Washington | Hawaii |
| Best paying company | Columbia University in the City of New York | UC Santa Barbara |
| Best paying industry | Health Care | Media |
There are a few differences between a grounds keeper and a gardener in terms of educational background:
| Grounds Keeper | Gardener | |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 48% | Bachelor's Degree, 44% |
| Most common major | Business | Plant Sciences |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between grounds keepers' and gardeners' demographics:
| Grounds Keeper | Gardener | |
| Average age | 41 | 41 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 89.1% Female, 10.9% | Male, 56.4% Female, 43.6% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 10.3% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 21.6% Asian, 2.2% White, 60.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.4% | Black or African American, 7.8% Unknown, 4.2% Hispanic or Latino, 28.0% Asian, 1.8% White, 56.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.5% |
| LGBT Percentage | 3% | 3% |