What does a landscaper do?
A landscaper is responsible for maintaining gardens, plant areas, and other outdoor facilities. Landscapers' duties include reviewing and adjusting landscape design based on the clients' specifications, analyzing garden layouts, measuring land areas and surfaces for the design outlines, installing irrigation systems, maintaining plant growth, and applying fertilizers regularly. Landscapers will also work on removing weeds, trimming overgrown plants, checking defects on landscape equipment, and coordinating with other outdoor design professionals. A landscaper should be knowledgeable about the recent landscaping trends to suggest designs and improve the landscape presentation.
Landscaper responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real landscaper resumes:
- Manage clients and run all landscape operations including groundskeeping, seasonal cleaning, and pressure washing
- Manage hardscape installation team and project
- Operate powered equipment such as mowers, tractors, snow blowers, chainsaws, sod cutters, pruning saws and edgers.
- Install plants, landscape lighting, and hardscape features (including retaining walls, paving stones and ponds).
- Used various tools to cut grass, prune small trees and shrubbery, paint, and perform other landscaping duties.
- Operate weed-whacker, leaf blower, lawn mower, and use of handsaw, shovels, and clippers as needed.
- Trim trees, weed removal, cut grass, drip irrigation repair, and own truck to haul debris to dump.
- Operate vehicles or power equipment, such as mowers, lawn tractors, leaf blowers, weed eater, and edgers.
- Operate all machinery including lawn mowers, edger's, leaf blowers & truck & trailer throughout to customer service areas.
- Operate forklift and skid loader, also use shovels, rakes, hedge trimmers, bed edger, and dump trailer.
- Mow and do the upkeep of lawns.
- Help dig and run irrigation lines.
- Pour concrete and asphalt onto roads.
- Fill pot holes with asphalt on schools parking lots.
- Transport and deliver of tugs and belt loaders to aircraft.
Landscaper skills and personality traits
We calculated that 19% of Landscapers are proficient in Mowing, Taking Care, and GRASS. They’re also known for soft skills such as Physical stamina, Customer-service skills, and Dexterity.
We break down the percentage of Landscapers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Mowing, 19%
Performed general labor related to mowing and landscaping.
- Taking Care, 14%
Planned landscaping tasks and instructed workers in taking care of nursery, planting flowers and transplanting and pruning trees and shrubbery.
- GRASS, 12%
Provided landscaping services including grass and hedge maintenance
- Power Saws, 11%
Shaped, trimmed and cut stone preparatory to setting, using power saws, cutting equipment, and hand tools.
- Prune, 7%
Rake, mulch, and prune the grounds as needed Water plants and grass as needed and apply fertilizer
- Golf Courses, 6%
Managed and maintained the day-to-day needs of personal estates and businesses -Maintained and groomed golf courses and installed and preserved irrigation systems
Most landscapers use their skills in "mowing," "taking care," and "grass" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential landscaper responsibilities here:
Physical stamina. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a landscaper to have is physical stamina. Their role and responsibilities require that "grounds maintenance workers must be able to do strenuous labor for long periods of time, occasionally in extreme heat or cold." Landscapers often use physical stamina in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "grass mowing lifting heavy block working physically using different equipment driving dump trucks fork lift and following various botany techniques"
Dexterity. landscapers are also known for dexterity, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to landscaper responsibilities, because "grounds maintenance workers must have good eye, foot, and hand coordination when using dangerous or heavy equipment such as backhoes, mowers, and tractors." A landscaper resume example shows how dexterity is used in the workplace: "maintained campus landscapes operated leaf blower, golf carts and weed eater shoveled, raked and lifted heavy equipment"
The three companies that hire the most landscapers are:
- BrightView236 landscapers jobs
- BrightView Landscape Development Inc230 landscapers jobs
- PeopleReady53 landscapers jobs
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Landscaper vs. Irrigation technician
An irrigation technician is responsible for installing, testing, and maintaining irrigation equipment such as sprinklers, suction valves, and pumps. Typical duties for this position include operating heavy machinery for trenching, installing wiring systems for irrigation timers, and inspecting equipment for a day's work. In addition, an irrigation technician may be required to travel to the client's location to install, test, or perform preventative maintenance of irrigation equipment. You are also expected to dig trenches and install lines and pipes and troubleshoot and replace faulty parts.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, landscaper responsibilities require skills like "power saws," "water lawns," "landscape maintenance," and "power mowers." Meanwhile a typical irrigation technician has skills in areas such as "trenchers," "sprinkler heads," "customer service," and "work ethic." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Irrigation technicians earn the highest salaries when working in the construction industry, with an average yearly salary of $35,738. On the other hand, landscapers are paid more in the health care industry with an average salary of $29,866.The education levels that irrigation technicians earn slightly differ from landscapers. In particular, irrigation technicians are 0.3% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a landscaper. Additionally, they're 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Landscaper vs. Groundskeeping maintenance
A Groundskeeping Maintenance Worker performs several skilled and semi-skilled tasks in grounds keeping and building trade areas. They maintain turf places, including weed control and Integrated Pest Management. They also cut and install window glass. These professionals replace broken pipes, replace gaskets, replace washers, replace faucets, flush sewer lines, and clean clogged drains. A Groundskeepipng Maintenance Worker must know how to operate hand equipment and power tools and identify and repair minor roof leaks.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that landscaper responsibilities requires skills like "taking care," "power saws," "landscape maintenance," and "leaf blower." But a groundskeeping maintenance might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "customer service," "cleanliness," "hvac," and "plumbing."
Groundskeeping maintenances earn a higher average salary than landscapers. But groundskeeping maintenances earn the highest pay in the real estate industry, with an average salary of $32,000. Additionally, landscapers earn the highest salaries in the health care with average pay of $29,866 annually.In general, groundskeeping maintenances achieve similar levels of education than landscapers. They're 0.3% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Landscaper vs. Ground crew
Ground crews, also known as ground staff, are personnel that work at the airport. These crews are either avionics technicians, customer service and ramp agents, or flight dispatchers. They service the airline while on the ground. Their primary responsibility is to ensure that the airline runway and gate are both clear from debris or garbage to prevent them from being sucked by the plane's engine. They also inspect the tarmac and take out any items found before the plane's arrival or departure.
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a landscaper is likely to be skilled in "taking care," "power saws," "water lawns," and "landscape maintenance," while a typical ground crew is skilled in "safety procedures," "fairways," "course maintenance," and "athletic fields."
Ground crews earn the highest salary when working in the manufacturing industry, where they receive an average salary of $34,910. Comparatively, landscapers have the highest earning potential in the health care industry, with an average salary of $29,866.ground crews typically earn similar educational levels compared to landscapers. Specifically, they're 0.9% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Landscaper vs. Lawn care technician
Even though a few skill sets overlap between landscapers and lawn care technicians, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a landscaper might have more use for skills like "taking care," "power saws," "golf courses," and "water lawns." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of lawn care technicians require skills like "customer service," "basic math," "pest control," and "safety procedures. "
Lawn care technicians enjoy the best pay in the finance industry, with an average salary of $34,566. For comparison, landscapers earn the highest salary in the health care industry.In general, lawn care technicians hold similar degree levels compared to landscapers. Lawn care technicians are 0.2% more likely to earn their Master's Degree and 0.0% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of landscaper
Updated January 8, 2025











