Groundskeeper & Landscaper Job Description: Template, Duties, Requirements & Pay (2026)
A groundskeeper — often posted as landscaper, landscaping laborer or grounds crew — keeps outdoor property alive and presentable — mowing, edging, planting, pruning, irrigation, leaf and snow work — usually outdoors in all weather and on a calendar that swings hard with the seasons. Below is a copy-paste groundskeeper job description template, the licensing detail that catches employers out, and what it costs to reach outdoor crews on social, from Boostpoint's campaign data.
What a groundskeeper does
Groundskeepers maintain outdoor property: mowing, trimming and edging, planting and mulching beds, pruning shrubs and small trees, running and repairing irrigation, applying fertiliser and pesticide where licensed, blowing and hauling leaves, and in most of the country plowing and salting through the winter. On a campus, a cemetery or a stadium the same title also means turf care, line marking and event preparation.
Employers post this same role under several titles — groundskeeper, landscaper, landscaping laborer, grounds crew — and job boards treat them as synonyms. All four map to the same BLS occupation, Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers, and the same pay data on this page. That is different from a landscape designer or landscape architect, which the BLS tracks separately as a credentialed, plan-and-design role rather than a hands-on maintenance one.
The BLS puts 1,299,200 people in grounds maintenance in 2025 at a $19.27 median hourly wage, with about 162,500 openings projected each year over the decade and no formal educational credential required to enter. Within the group, the May 2025 medians spread meaningfully: $18.82 for landscaping and groundskeeping workers, $22.28 for pesticide handlers, sprayers and applicators, and $24.50 for tree trimmers and pruners.
That spread is the most useful thing on this page. If you need someone to spray, you are hiring against a $22.28 market and a state license, not against a $18.82 mowing market — and posting one generic "groundskeeper" ad for both is why the licensed applications never arrive.
Groundskeeper job description template
Copy this into your ATS or job board, replace the bracketed fields, and cut anything that does not apply. It is ordered the way outdoor crews read: pay, hours, where, what equipment, then the rest.
Job title
Groundskeeper / Landscaper — [Full-time / Seasonal], [Property type], [City]
Summary
[Employer] is hiring groundskeepers for our [campus / community / property portfolio] in [city, state]. Pay is $[XX.XX]–$[XX.XX]/hour depending on experience and licenses. Hours are [Mon–Fri, 7am–3:30pm], with [overtime available in spring and fall] and [snow call-outs paid at time and a half]. This is [year-round work with winter grounds and snow duties / seasonal work from March through November].
Responsibilities
- Mow, trim, edge and blow assigned areas on a set rotation
- Plant, mulch, weed and prune beds, shrubs and small trees
- Operate and maintain mowers, trimmers, blowers and [utility vehicles / skid steer]
- Inspect, adjust and repair irrigation heads, lines and controllers
- Apply fertiliser and [pesticide, where licensed] per label and [state] requirements
- Handle seasonal work: leaf removal, storm clean-up and [snow removal and salting]
- Complete daily equipment checks and report damage; keep the shop and trailers organized
Requirements
- Able to work outdoors in all weather and to bend, kneel, lift [50] lbs and shovel through a full shift
- Valid driver's license and a clean record [for towing trailers between sites]
- Available for [7am starts] and for [snow call-outs on short notice in winter]
- Reliable transport to the shop in [city]
Preferred
- Previous landscaping, grounds, golf course or agricultural experience
- [State] pesticide applicator license, or willingness to obtain it — we pay for training and testing
- Irrigation troubleshooting or small-engine repair
- Comfortable towing a trailer; [Class B / CDL] a plus, not required
Schedule and pay
- $[XX.XX]–$[XX.XX]/hour; [$X.XX/hour premium once your applicator license is current]
- [Mon–Fri, 7am–3:30pm]; [overtime available March–November]
- [Snow call-outs paid at time and a half, with a guaranteed X-hour minimum]
- [Year-round employment / seasonal March–November with rehire priority]
Benefits
- Health, dental and vision from day [1 / 30 / 60]
- Paid time off and [6] paid holidays
- [401(k) with X% match]
- [Boots and outerwear allowance]; [all equipment and PPE provided]
- [Pesticide license and CEUs paid]; [posted path to crew lead]
Requirements: what to keep, what to soften, and what quietly costs you applicants
Grounds postings tend to under-describe the job and over-describe the person. Both cost applications.
| Requirement | What to know |
|---|---|
| Physical demands and weather | Keep them, specifically. The BLS describes this work as usually done outdoors in all kinds of weather and as repetitive and physically demanding, with frequent bending, kneeling, lifting and shovelling. Saying so is honest, legally useful and does not deter people who already do it. |
| Pesticide applicator license | Know your state before you write the line. The BLS notes most states require licensing for workers who apply pesticides, and that licensing for fertiliser handlers varies by state. If you need spraying done, either hire licensed at the $22.28 market or pay for the license and say so in the ad — a differential for a current license attracts the applicants a requirement would have excluded. |
| Experience | Usually preferred, not required. No formal credential is needed to enter, and with roughly 162,500 openings a year an experience gate is a choice to hire slowly. Say "we will train" if you will. |
| Driver's license | Keep where the job genuinely involves driving between sites or towing. Where it does not, dropping it opens the role to a meaningful share of the local pool. |
| Seasonality | Disclose it in the first two lines. Whether this is year-round work or a March-to-November season is the single biggest question a candidate has, and hiding it produces applicants who quit in November. |
| Snow duty | Say it plainly, with the pay. Winter call-outs discovered after hire are a common reason grounds staff leave; stated up front with a premium and a guaranteed minimum, they become a reason to apply. |
How to customize it for your setting
Commercial landscaping contractor
Crews want to know the route, the truck and who leads. Say how many properties a day, whether the crew is two or five, and what the path to crew lead looks like. Overtime in season is a selling point for this candidate, so state the months and typical hours rather than "some overtime required".
Campus, municipal and cemetery grounds
Predictability and benefits are the offer. Year-round employment, a pension or public retirement plan and a fixed schedule beat a higher hourly rate for many experienced groundskeepers. Say what the winter work actually is, because "grounds" in January is a different job.
Golf course and sports turf
This is turf work, not landscaping, and the candidates are different. Name the equipment and the early start — a 5am mow before play is the defining feature of the job, and the people who want it already know that.
Property management and HOA
The work is dispersed across sites, so the vehicle, the fuel and the daily route matter more than at a single property. State whether a company vehicle is provided and whether the role includes light maintenance beyond grounds — many do, and hiding it produces early quits.
What it costs to reach groundskeepers on social
We do not publish a groundskeeping figure — there is no grounds or landscaping family in our dataset, and inventing one would be worse than saying so. What we can publish is the sector it sits nearest. Across 335 skilled trades and field service campaign-months in our 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, the median cost per applicant was $11.89, with the middle half of campaigns between $6.50 and $24.89, an apply rate of 18% and a CPM of $15.96.
The timing lever matters more here than in most categories. Grounds hiring is seasonal by nature — the BLS notes these workers may be busier or work longer hours in spring, summer and fall, and that some jobs are seasonal — so campaigns that launch in the month the crew is already needed compete with every other contractor in the market at once. Our landscaping recruiting page works through that curve. These figures are advertising cost only and buy an applicant, not a hire.
If you are hiring grounds crews rather than describing the job, the recruiting side — where outdoor workers actually are, when to launch, and what an applicant costs to reach — is on our landscaping and grounds recruiting page.
Writing the ad version
The template above is for your ATS and careers page. The advertisement that runs on Facebook or Instagram is much shorter and answers three questions in the first two lines: how much, what hours, where. Something like: "Groundskeeper — $20–$23/hr, year round, not seasonal. Mon–Fri 7am–3:30pm. [City]. We pay for your pesticide license. Apply in 60 seconds, no résumé."
Then two or three knockout questions on the form — license status, availability, distance — and nothing else. Every added field costs completions, and each screening question buys precision with volume. The mechanics are in our candidate conversion rate guide, and fifteen worked examples are in our help wanted ad examples library.
Frequently asked questions
What does a groundskeeper do?
Mowing, trimming and edging, planting and mulching beds, pruning shrubs and small trees, running and repairing irrigation, applying fertiliser and pesticide where licensed, seasonal leaf and storm clean-up, and in most regions snow removal. On campuses, cemeteries and sports facilities the role also covers turf care, line marking and event preparation.
How much do groundskeepers make?
The BLS median for grounds maintenance workers was $19.27 an hour, or $40,080 a year, in 2025. Within the group, May 2025 medians were $18.82 for landscaping and groundskeeping workers, $22.28 for pesticide handlers, sprayers and applicators and $24.50 for tree trimmers and pruners. Posting against the right one of those three matters as much as the number itself.
Does a groundskeeper need a license?
Not to do general grounds work — the BLS lists no formal educational credential for the occupation. Pesticide application is different: most states require licensing for workers who apply pesticides, and licensing for those handling fertilisers varies by state. Check your state's rules before writing the duty list, and consider paying for the license rather than requiring it.
What does a landscaper actually do?
Day to day, the same things as a groundskeeper: mowing, edging, planting and mulching beds, pruning shrubs and small trees, irrigation upkeep, and seasonal leaf, storm and snow work. “Landscaper” is simply the more common consumer-facing title for the job — on job boards and in BLS data it is the same occupation and the same pay band as groundskeeper, not a separate, higher-skilled role.
Is groundskeeping seasonal work?
Often, but not always. The BLS notes most grounds maintenance workers are full time, that they may be busier or work longer hours in spring, summer and fall, and that some jobs are seasonal. Whether your role is year-round or March-to-November is the first thing a candidate wants to know, so it belongs in the first two lines of the posting rather than in a conversation at interview.
Other job description templates
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See all job description templates — free, editable templates for frontline, trades, healthcare and warehouse roles.
Hiring grounds crews?
The job description is the document; the ad is the thing that gets read. We write it, run it where outdoor workers are actually scrolling, and report what each applicant cost — cost per applicant, not cost per hire.
Pay, employment, outlook, specialty medians, licensing, seasonality and work-environment statements: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, Grounds Maintenance Workers (last modified August 27, 2026; 2025 wage and employment data, May 2025 medians by specialty), read August 28, 2026. Cost-per-applicant figures: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark — skilled trades and field service sector, 335 campaign-months, advertising costs only; no grounds or landscaping role family is published. Cost per applicant is not cost per hire. Last updated August 2026.