Landscape Gardener CV Examples & Writing Guide

A note on the title before the sample. Landscape gardener is the usual term in the UK and Ireland, alongside landscaper, landscape operative and grounds maintenance operative; it normally means someone who builds (hard landscaping) as well as plants and maintains (soft landscaping). It is a different job from a landscape architect, who designs sites and usually holds chartered membership of the Landscape Institute, and from a garden designer, who draws plans. Use the advert's exact word at the top of your CV.

This sample is for someone with nine years: council parks first, then residential design and build, now team leader on commercial grounds maintenance contracts. The person and companies are invented. Swap in your own hectares, contracts and machinery.

Most hiring in this trade is done by the owner or a contract manager, in March, in a hurry, with teams already short. They are asking one question: how soon can this person work without me standing next to them.

• Machinery you can run today. Zero-turn, ride-on, mini digger, dumper, compact loader, chainsaw, stump grinder, sprayer. Every machine on your list is a day of training they do not have to pay for.
• Whether you can drive and tow. A clean licence and experience towing a loaded trailer is worth real money to a team, because most vans cannot leave the yard without a driver. Say it in the header.
• Certificates and cards. PA1/PA6 changes what an owner can quote for, and a CSCS card gets you onto new-build and commercial sites. If you hold them, put the modules or card type and the year near the top. If you do not, say you are willing to train for them.
• Round and production numbers. Sites serviced, hectares cut, visits a day, builds a year, call-backs. These are the numbers the owner runs the business on and almost nobody puts them on a CV.
• Whether you stay through a season. This trade loses people in July. Dates that show you worked full seasons, and returned the next spring, carry weight on their own.

“Give me a driver with a spray certificate who can run a skid steer and I will make room on payroll the same week. What I cannot use is a CV that says "performed general landscaping duties" with no machines, no acreage and no certificate.”

Three or four lines under your name: years, maintenance or construction, the size of what you looked after, your machines and your certificates. Pick the closest version and change the numbers.

Most landscaping CVs are a list of verbs: mowed, strimmed, planted, cleared up. Here are nine of them rewritten with the numbers that make an owner pick up the phone.

Owners scan for machines and plant knowledge. Put both in a grouped block rather than a long single list.

• Grass: mowing patterns and height of cut, edging, aeration, overseeding, scarifying, turf laying, levelling and soil preparation, feeding programmes, weed and disease identification.

• Plants: identification for your region, planting and transplanting, staking, mulching, pruning by species and season, seasonal bedding, herbaceous border care, pest and disease spotting, watering schedules.

• Irrigation: head and nozzle replacement, valve and solenoid repair, controller programming (Rain Bird, Hunter, Toro), zone testing, draining down for winter and spring recommissioning, and awareness of the water regulations on backflow prevention.

• Hard landscaping and site work: porcelain and natural stone patios, block paving and paths, sleeper and block retaining walls, edging, steps, drainage and French drains, sub-base preparation and compaction, fencing, small demolition.

• Machinery: zero-turn, ride-on and stand-on mowers, pedestrian mower, strimmer/brushcutter, blower, hedge cutter, chainsaw, pole saw, stump grinder, turf cutter, aerator, spreader, knapsack and boom sprayer, compact loader, mini digger, dumper, plate compactor, tipping trailer, and basic maintenance such as blade sharpening and small engine servicing.

• The practical facts: driving licence and record, trailer towing (B+E), safe manual handling of 25 kg bags and paving slabs, early starts, working in heat and rain, weekend storm response, and any second language you speak on a team.

Most landscaping work needs no licence at all, which is exactly why the few certificates that exist stand out. Two of them can change your pay rate on their own.

• Pesticide application certificates. To apply professional weedkillers and other plant protection products at work you generally need PA1 (the foundation module) plus PA6 for hand-held applicators such as knapsack sprayers (PA6AW for weeds in or near water), from City & Guilds NPTC or Lantra. List the modules, the year and your NRoSO membership if you have it.
• Driving licence. A clean licence matters on every team. Most car licences now cover towing a trailer up to 3.5 tonnes, and a C1 is needed for a 7.5-tonne tipper, but check what your vehicle and trailer combination requires on GOV.UK rather than assuming, and say clearly what you are legally allowed to drive and tow.
• CSCS card. Most main contractors and new-build sites will not let you on without one. Landscapers have usually qualified through the land-based (LISS) route run with Lantra, or with a green labourer card after the CITB health and safety test; name the card type and expiry year.
• BALI. The British Association of Landscape Industries is mainly a trade body for companies. If your employer is a BALI member or you worked on a BALI award-winning scheme, say so; it is well known among larger firms and commercial clients.
• Tree work. Chainsaw certificates (CS30 for maintenance and cross-cutting, CS31 for felling small trees) and Level 2 or 3 arboriculture qualifications usually move you into a higher-paid team. ISA Certified Arborist is an international credential seen at larger firms.
• Plant cards and short courses: CPCS or NPORS cards for a mini digger, dumper or roller, IOSH Working Safely and Emergency First Aid at Work. Cheap, quick and often the tiebreaker between two applicants.

Landscaping hires more people with no experience than almost any other trade, especially between February and May. The CV only has to prove you will last the season.

1. 1Write a two-line career objective: the season you are available for, your driving licence, and any outdoor physical work you have done.
2. 2List mowing, garden work, farm work, construction labouring, warehouse or removals work with hours and how long you stayed. Stamina and staying power are what the owner is buying.
3. 3Name any machinery you have honestly used, even a pedestrian mower, a strimmer or a chainsaw at home.
4. 4Add basic plant or garden knowledge if you have it: an allotment or vegetable patch, help at a family nursery, a school horticulture course. It separates you from the applicants who just want a job outside.
5. 5Get Emergency First Aid at Work and, if you want site work, a CSCS card (usually the CITB health and safety test plus a short health and safety award) before spring. Both signal you take the safety side seriously.
6. 6Apply in February and March, before teams are full, and go to the yard early in the morning with a printed copy.

• One page. Two only if you have moved into management with several teams and budgets.
• Put certificates, cards, driving status and towing experience in the header or immediately under the personal statement.
• No photo, no date of birth, no marital status on a UK CV.
• Plain single column. Large national grounds maintenance contractors use hiring software; small local firms print it in the yard office. Both need it simple.
• Describe each employer in brackets so a reader from another area understands the work: "commercial grounds maintenance contractor", "residential design and build", "council parks".
• Titles worth mirroring: landscape gardener, landscaper, landscape operative, grounds maintenance operative, gardener, team leader, chargehand, irrigation technician.
• Task words worth mirroring: mowing, edging, pruning, mulching, planting, turfing, aeration, overseeding, hard landscaping, soft landscaping, block paving, patios, retaining walls, irrigation, PA1/PA6, seasonal clear-ups, winter gritting where the job includes it.
• Machinery words worth mirroring: zero-turn, ride-on, mini digger, dumper, stump grinder, sprayer, trailer, B+E, CSCS.