How To Get Started As A Landscaper

“I love plants and the nursery is my happy place. Getting my hands dirty is good for my mind. Leaving a space better than I found it makes me feel good about myself. I think I might want to be a landscaper.”

For a certain type of person, maybe even you, being a landscaper is a great job- maybe even a career. But how do you get started in the first place? There are a couple of paths, and most landscapers follow one of them.

How To Become A Landscaper:

Get hired as a landscape laborer. This is the simplest and most direct route, especially in Oregon where getting licensed as a landscaper is difficult.

Pretty much every day of the year you can find a landscape company, probably a larger one, that is hiring. If you are healthy, strong, can pass a drug test, and don’t mind working in the rain you can probably get hired tomorrow. Here in Portland you can expect to make $16-$20 an hour to start.

Be prepared to work hard: to dig, to lift, to trench, to mow, to… you get the picture. You should also be prepared to learn. You might start doing grunt work, but pretty quickly you’ll be taught to glue pvc pipe together, lay pavers in a pattern, install edging, and a whole bunch of other tasks and skills that fall under the umbrella of “landscaping”.

Advancement is possible. If you work hard, learn, and show some aptitude for the work you can expect to paid more. Eventually you can drive a truck and lead a crew. Prove yourself doing that and you can become a project manager, overseeing multiple crews. Depending on the size of the company you could even advance beyond that. Here in Portland crew leaders at large companies routinely make $30+ per hour, with benefits. I know a crew leader at a smaller high-end firm that makes over $100K.

I’m a third generation landscaper, with over 25 years in the field. I am also a landscape designer.

What is the difference between “landscaper” and “landscape designer”? Landscapers build, maintain, or repair landscapes. Landscape designers… well… they design landscapes. The path to becoming a designer may, or may not, include being an actual builder of landscapes.

Starting your own landscape maintenance company is another common way to get started. All you need is a truck, a mower, a string trimmer, a blower, some hand tools and a whole bunch of hustle. You’ll start mowing lawns and doing cleanups. Eventually you will be spreading bark dust and trimming bushes and small trees. One day someone will ask you to plant some flowers. The next week a client asks what bush would look good by the front walkway, and what tree would eventually screen that view.

Pretty soon you are not just maintaining landscapes but you are actively improving them. A neighbor sees the work you are doing and asks if you could completely redo their little front yard. You do a nice job and next get a call from their sister, who just bought a new home in Happy Valley and needs to finish the backyard.

Now you realize that you have options. You can continue to mow lawns and supplement that steady revenue with the higher profit installation work. Or, hire someone to do the mowing route while you focus on selling and building landscapes. Ross NW Watergardens took the third route, and completely eliminated the maintenance work.

Why not just start with landscape installation, if that is what you really want to be doing? This is probably the most challenging way to get into landscaping. It can be hard to find your early clients when you have no portfolio or reviews. And, to be honest, many projects will require knowledge and skill you don’t have yet. In Oregon, you aren’t even able to get licensed unless you have experience working for someone else or have been doing maintenance for a while.

But if this is the way that appeals to you, start with cleanups. Cleanups can lead to small improvement projects. Build a paver patio with a friend. Install a sprinkler system at your aunt’s house. Or focus heavily on plants, staying away from the more complex aspects of landscaping. Just be prepared to occasionally be in over your head, learning as you go.

Are there other ways to get into the trade? For sure. Check out the NALP for some other options.

That is how to become a landscaper. But should you? Maybe I’ll talk about the pros and cons of being a landscaper in my next post.