The landscape gardener builds the green: patios and paving, planting, lawns, walls, steps and drainage. It's a varied outdoor trade with a visible result, professional pride and a direct path from apprentice to journeyman — with pay during training. Here's why you should consider the trade.
A landscape gardener creates and maintains outdoor spaces: laying paving slabs and cobblestones, building steps, kerbing and retaining walls, planting trees, hedges and beds, sowing and looking after lawns, and managing drainage so the water runs the right way. You work in gardens, parks, residential areas, cemeteries and along roads — out in the open, all year round, and you watch your work grow into something beautiful.
§Why this trade in particular?
Because it is one of the most versatile trades: one week you lay paving with a precise fall, the next you plant or lay a lawn. You work with soil, stone, plants and water alike, and you combine hands and head — you measure up, calculate quantities of plants, soil and materials and choose the right solution. You earn a wage during your training, and the path from apprentice to journeyman is clear.
- 01Outdoors and varied — stone, soil, plants, grass and water in the same trade.
- 02A visible result — you go home and can point to a terrace, a bed or a lawn you have created.
- 03Pay during training — you earn from day one of the work placement.
- 04Green profile — you work hands-on with nature, rainwater and biodiversity.
- 05Career path — from apprentice to journeyman and on to foreman, site manager or your own business.
§What must you be able to do — and learn?
You need to be able to read a drawing, set out levels and falls, build a pavement correctly (formation, capping, base course, levelling layer, surface), lay paving in patterns, plant according to the Planting Standard, sow and maintain grass — and take off material quantities, so that neither too little nor too much is ordered. Landscape gardener is a vocational programme (EUD): you alternate between school and an apprenticeship at a company.
- 01Pavements — formation level, capping layer, base course, levelling and surface in accordance with NfA 1992 and DS 1136.
- 02Planting — plant spacing, staggered layout, planting depth and receiving inspection in accordance with the Plantestandard.
- 03Grass — soil preparation, seeding rate, fertilising and establishment requirements.
- 04Fall and drainage — per mille, levels and drains, so the water runs correctly.
- 05Measurement — area, volume, plant count and material quantities from the actual dimensions.
§How you get started
Start the basic course (grundforløb) at a vocational college and find an apprenticeship at a landscaping firm. You don't need to know it all in advance — you just need to enjoy working outdoors with your hands and making something that lasts and grows. If you want to get a feel for the trade first, create a free account and browse the articles, calculators and posts here.
“The best thing about the trade is that you make something that grows. When the terrace has the right fall and the bed is sprouting, you know it's proper work — and it only gets better with the years.”