This article is a guide for people interested in becoming professional gardeners, providing advice on the skills required, how to gain experience, and important considerations if starting a landscaping business.
Working outdoors, transforming green spaces, and spending time in nature. Many people dream of becoming a professional gardener or landscaper – but what steps do you need to take to make it a reality?
You don't have to be in your early 20s to change careers. Whether you're fresh out of school or have spent many years in another industry, you can make the switch – many pros in our Powered by Kawasaki community became landscapers later in life.
For most, it's worth taking the chance. In our 2025 professional landscaper's report, 61 percent of landscapers across the UK, France, Germany and Italy said their job had a positive impact on their physical and/or mental health. Often, we hear a similar story: it's hard work, but rewarding.
We support landscaping professionals throughout their careers with reliable engines and expert advice. If you're at the beginning of your professional gardening journey, we're here to help you get a head start.
Understanding the skillset is a good starting point for any aspiring landscaper or gardener. What do you actually need to know?
Before anything else, it's worth considering the physical demands of the work. Gardening or landscaping is labour-intensive, and involves working outdoors in various weather conditions – you'll need good stamina to succeed.
Landscape maintenance is wide and varied: some gardeners work mostly on residential gardens, requiring a mix of skillsets, while others may work exclusively in turfcare, becoming experts in the minute details of perfecting a lawn.
Depending on the type of work you're interested in, there are new skills you'll have to learn. Generally, however, these are the basics that the vast majority of professional gardeners will know.
Lawn care is the core of a professional gardener's work. From residential gardens to commercial properties, you'll need to know how to keep the grass thriving for nearly every project.
While many landscapers first start out just mowing grass, lawn care can become much more involved. Each season requires a different approach, from how to manage drought in summer, to essential tasks like scarifying and aeration for spring and autumn lawn care, even preparing for cold weather – you'll learn how and when to perform vital tasks throughout the year as you become a lawn care expert.
And it's not just the seasons; there are several different areas to master, as well as considerations dependent on where you live in Europe. From soil management and irrigation, to lawn diseases and pest management, to simpler considerations, such as cutting heights, there's a lot to learn, and many opportunities to specialise.
Image: Hoopers Garden Maintenance
If you work only in turfcare, understanding plants isn't critical. But most professional gardeners and landscapers will have a good knowledge of horticulture, learning the art of cultivating and nurturing plant life.
You may be maintaining or even planting flower beds, or getting creative with topiary – horticulture, like lawn care, has many niches you can learn.
Whatever kind of gardening or landscaping you do, you'll be working with specialist equipment. Landscaping machinery includes everything from larger equipment like ride-on mowers, to handheld tools, such as brushcutters and multi-tools.
Understanding how to use and maintain equipment (and if running your own business, knowing which landscaping tools you'll need) is an important skill in itself.
Expanding your skillset from the basics of gardening work can give you a competitive edge and allow you to tackle jobs that need specialist knowledge. If running a business, it can also offer another income stream.
These are just a handful of examples of areas you can specialise in to differentiate yourself:
Qualifications aren't essential to work in landscape maintenance, but this does depend on the type of work you're interested in. Hands-on gardening courses can give you a good grounding in the basics, from horticultural knowledge to turf management.
If you're planning to work in a more specialised field, official certifications may be required. You're likely to need technical certifications to become an irrigation specialist, for example, or a horticultural qualification to be considered as an employee for certain gardening organisations.
Nothing can replace practical experience. Time spent training in a learning environment is valuable, but the best way to develop skills and learn your trade is by doing the work. You can apply practical horticulture skills, get used to working with different types of equipment, and understand which parts of the job appeal to you the most.
Most landscapers and professional gardeners run their own business. But practical skills are only one part of the equation; you should thoroughly learn your trade before investing, as running a business involves complexities such as managing cash flow, marketing, and understanding contracts.
Sam Jarockyj started his business from scratch in 2020, starting out as a one-man band, and now has a full team of professional gardeners supporting him. By reading his six steps to start a landscaping business, you can follow his example, and learn everything you need to know, from the money you'll likely need to invest at the start to how to find your first customers.
If you're working for yourself, rather than a team with an established set of tools, you'll need to purchase equipment.
It's one of the most important decisions you will make, as in landscaping, you depend on your tools every day. The first step is to understand what equipment you'll need, which will depend on the type of work you're targeting. Avoid the temptation to purchase more than you need before you have an understanding of what you'll actually use!
Then, it's about quality and reliability. There's a huge range of manufacturers for everything from multi-tools to ride-on mowers. It can be difficult to know where to start, but it's vital to invest in tools you can trust – money saved upfront may well be lost in downtime and the cost of more frequent replacements.
Quality and reliability are synonymous with Kawasaki engines. Professionals have trusted our engines to power their equipment for decades, knowing that no matter how tough the work gets, they can rely on a Kawasaki engine to power through.
Kawasaki engines are durable, long-lasting, and powerful – we work with trusted landscape machinery manufacturers to provide professionals with equipment of the highest quality. Invest in tools that you know will perform. Explore equipment Powered by Kawasaki today.
This is highly dependent on your location and whether or not you own the business. Starting salaries as an employed gardener in many European countries can start at around €20,000-€25,000 per annum, while experienced gardeners can earn considerably more. It depends on location, but self-employed gardeners often charge around €30 an hour.
You don't necessarily need qualifications to become a gardener; many start landscape businesses with no formal education in the sector. A diploma in horticulture or similar may be highly regarded by some employers, however.
You'll need green fingers and dedication to succeed as a professional gardener, gaining hands-on experience through the likes of apprenticeships, volunteering, and working on your own garden. Learning the basics of lawn care, horticulture, and equipment operation is critical.
Many colleges and societies offer a variety of garden design, landscaping, and horticultural courses, which can provide valuable skills and knowledge for a career in gardening. In the UK, for instance, Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) qualifications are popular among gardeners. You may be able to get support with funding at local horticultural colleges.
If you choose to become certified, it usually takes between six months and three years to become qualified, depending on the route you take and the level of expertise required.
You don't need an official license to become a gardener, though handling certain pesticides may require certifications.
There's plenty of overlap between the two, and the terms are often used interchangeably. Traditionally, a gardener works in plant care and maintenance, particularly for residential gardens, while a landscape gardener will incorporate design and hard landscaping into their work, and work on a variety of green spaces, from small gardens to parks. The term landscaper also often refers to landscape maintenance professionals.
If you've been running your landscaping business for a while, you'll know how rewarding it is to deliver beautiful results for homeowners and local residential clients. But at some point, many one-person businesses or small teams start asking the same question: what's next?
Though it may sound like it, rewilding isn’t just about taking some time off and letting grass grow as wild as it pleases. It actually has quite a bit of science behind it, and is a process that landscapers are key in supporting.
If you’re starting a brand new business and wondering where to begin with pricing, or just need a quick refresh of the basics, we have created a simple overview to help get your business on the right track.
Discover the jobs available in landscaping, how to become a professional gardener, and why quality equipment is critical to setting you up for success.