Property and grounds
Landscaping & Irrigation
You build and maintain the outside of a property. Design, install, hardscape, irrigation, maintenance. It has the lowest entry barrier of anything on this list and a genuine ceiling — irrigation and design-build are skilled, licensed, well-paid work that looks nothing like cutting grass.
A day in it
- Shop at six-thirty. Load the trailer, check the mowers, fuel up.
- Maintenance route in the morning — six commercial properties, crew of three.
- Mow, edge, blow, and it has to look sharp because people judge the whole property by it.
- Lunch, then the install side of the business.
- Irrigation repair on a system with a broken lateral. Dig it up, cut it in, glue it, test the zone.
- Set the controller and walk every head to check coverage.
- Trailer cleaned out before it goes back in the yard.
What it pays
- Starting out
- $29,990
- Median
- $38,090
- Experienced
- $53,900
The figures above are landscaping and groundskeeping workers (SOC 37-3011) — where you start. First-line supervisors of landscaping crews (SOC 37-1012) run $39,270 starting out, $56,170 median, $83,080 experienced. That step is the whole point.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 (national). Starting out = 10th percentile. Median = 50th. Experienced = 90th. Annual. Georgia figures to be added alongside national. SOC 37-3011. Real numbers only — never estimated, never rounded up.
How you get in
- —Hired immediately with no experience, anywhere in Georgia.
- —Irrigation is where the pay changes. Georgia requires a contractor license for irrigation work.
- —Pesticide applicator certification through the Georgia Department of Agriculture adds real money.
- —The Mustard Seed covers certification, licensing fees, and tools.
What you need before you start
- —Heat and early hours, most of the year.
- —A driver's license — you'll be towing a trailer.
- —The willingness to move past maintenance. The people who stay on a mower stay at mower pay.
Someone doing it
Photograph, first name, age, and three or four sentences in their own words — to be supplied.
What it turns into
Crew lead, then irrigation tech, then design-build or your own company. Landscape companies are among the most commonly bought and sold small businesses in Georgia.
Want to talk to somebody doing this?
Two fields. A person reads it and texts you back.