So you want to become a landscaper, huh? Let’s assume you’re already certified or at least in training. You have an eye for lavish design and believe you can make any backyard look like Louvre’s garden in no time! Good for you! It’s a prospective field with many looking to embellish their backyard design. People pay good money for that.
In fact, the U.S. landscaping industry had an estimated market value of around $176 billion in 2023, making it one of the most prospective niches to explore.
Skills aside, first things first! You should ALWAYS start with the basics and then move on step by step. If you’re looking to start a landscaping business for your neighbors or the entire locality, you need to get a bunch of gear to even think about getting started.
At AroundWire, we’ve compiled a checklist for you that every aspiring landscaping artist should have: Behold, the essential tools for starting a successful landscaping business.
- Lawn Mower. Maintaining a lawn without this baby is difficult—it will cut the grass to a uniform height!
- String Trimmer. This one helps you with those hard-to-reach areas that a lawn mower won’t be able to reach on its own—places around trees, fences, edges, etc.
- Leaf Blower. Come autumn, this gear will help you quickly clean leaves and debris from lawns, driveways, and walkways!
- Hedge Trimmer. It will shape shrubs and hedges to help you maintain their appearance neat and professional.
- Edger. The edges along driveways, walkways, and flower beds won’t clean themselves up – that’s what the edger’s here for!
- Pruning Shears. It helps trim flowers, plants, and smaller branches. A landscaper uses it to maintain healthy growth and aesthetic appeal.
- Shovel. Do you need a reason here, fellow? Digging holes, moving soil—there are so many ways to use that tool.
- Rake. This tool gathers leaves and grass clippings and is also good for leveling soil. It’s a must for your stack.
- Wheelbarrow. There’s plenty to transport around. Use it to move soil, plants, mulch, and anything else around the site.
- Garden Hose and Sprinkler. No plant can survive long without proper watering. Keep a good watering system handy—you may never know where it will be needed.
These tools are just the tip of the iceberg – you’ll realize you will need much more along the way. It’s a great beginner’s kit to start doing most of the tasks that the job entails right away. At least, the heftier ones.
So, in the end, it’s all in the little things. As they say, the devil is in the details, and every landscaping business starts with a good old shovel that’s about to get plenty to dig through. Gear up, get your A-Mood ready, and get diggin’ cause landscaping is a little bit like WW1 – there’s so much trenching you often get lost among the underground infrastructure.
