Landscape gardener

As a landscape gardener you build and maintain the green outdoor spaces we all use: gardens, parks, courtyards, graveyards, sports facilities and urban spaces. You work with both the green — plants, trees and grass — and the grey, that is surfaces, stairs, walls and terraces. It is a trade for those who want to make something with your hands outdoors and can point to a finished facility and say: I built that.

The everyday alternates between creating new and maintaining the existing. You lay tiles and paving stones, build stairs and retaining walls, plant trees, shrubs and beds, sow and maintain lawns and manage water and fall in the terrain. In the maintenance part you cut, prune, weed and maintain landscaping so it continues to look good. You read drawings, use machines and hand tools and often work in a crew with others.

• 01You learn to install paving, stairs, walls, and terraces.
• 02You learn to plant and care for trees, shrubs, beds, and grass.
• 03You learn to read site plans and correctly set out a project in the terrain.
• 04You learn to handle terrain, slopes, and drainage so water flows correctly.
• 05You learn to use machines and tools safely and efficiently.
• 06You learn plant knowledge, so you choose the right place for the right plant

Landscape gardener is a vocational education under the gardening trade. You start with a basic course and continue in the main course with internship at a landscape gardening company where you get paid and learn the trade in practice with experienced journeymen. You can start after primary school or come in later – the trade is good for you if you thrive with physical work and seeing a result grow.

As a fully trained landscape gardener you can work in landscape gardener companies municipalities at housing associations or become independent. With experience you can become a crew leader or foreman specialise in for example graveyards or maintenance and you can build further with courses or further education in management planning or environment.

“The great thing is that people use what you make every day for many years — it does not disappear when you go home.”