LO
Gardener / landscaper — skills, knowledge and links
Where this job sits in the official classifications, what those classifications say it demands, and what it connects to. Every block names its source: our own judgements, the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET, or the U.S. Department of Education.
How it connects#
O*NET also lists (no page here yet): Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation · Tree Trimmers and Pruners · Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse · First-Line Supervisors of Landscaping, Lawn Service, and Groundskeeping Workers · Agricultural Equipment Operators · Highway Maintenance Workers · Helpers--Pipelayers, Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters · Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators
In the official classification#
Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers
Fit with this page: same job
Job Zone 1–2: very little to some preparation
See it on O*NET OnLine ↗In Europe, internationally and in Singapore
Gardeners, horticultural and nursery growers
Fit with this page: closest match, not the same job
Landscape worker
Fit with this page: closest match, not the same job
What O*NET rates highest#
From O*NET 37-3011.00 (Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers). Ordered by O*NET's importance rating; the words are O*NET's own scale anchors.
Transferable skills
- Operation and ControlImportant
- Operations MonitoringSomewhat important
- Social PerceptivenessSomewhat important
- CoordinationSomewhat important
- Equipment SelectionSomewhat important
- Time ManagementSomewhat important
- Judgment and Decision MakingSomewhat important
- InstructingSomewhat important
Knowledge
- Customer and Personal ServiceSomewhat important
- MechanicalSomewhat important
- ChemistrySomewhat important
- Building and ConstructionSomewhat important
- English LanguageSomewhat important
- TransportationSomewhat important
Work activities
- Controlling Machines and ProcessesVery important
- Performing General Physical ActivitiesImportant
- Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or SubordinatesImportant
- Operating Vehicles, Mechanized Devices, or EquipmentImportant
- Getting InformationImportant
- Handling and Moving ObjectsImportant
Abilities
- Multilimb CoordinationVery important
- Manual DexterityImportant
- Trunk StrengthImportant
- Control PrecisionImportant
- Static StrengthImportant
- StaminaImportant
Essential skills
- Critical ThinkingImportant
- Active ListeningSomewhat important
- SpeakingSomewhat important
- MonitoringSomewhat important
- Reading ComprehensionSomewhat important
Each task in O*NET's terms#
O*NET describes work as detailed activities. Each of this page's 4 tasks is matched only against the activities O*NET lists for this occupation, with a stated fit; 4 match at least one. The alignment and its fit are this site's judgement, made task by task by its AI agent (Claude) on 2026-09-26; O*NET does not align tasks like ours. The activity names are O*NET's, the translations ours.
- Mowing and routine turf careOperate grounds maintenance equipment.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Controlling Machines and Processes · O*NET 31.0Cultivate lawns, turf, or gardens.covers part of this task · Performing General Physical Activities · O*NET 31.0
- Trimming and pruningTrim trees or other vegetation.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Handling and Moving Objects · O*NET 31.0
- Planting and building landscapesPlant greenery to improve landscape appearance.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Performing General Physical Activities · O*NET 31.0
- Applying pesticides and fertiliserTreat greenery or surfaces with protective substances.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Handling and Moving Objects · O*NET 31.0Prepare chemicals for work application.covers part of this task · Performing General Physical Activities · O*NET 31.0
Our task judgements#
O*NET says what this job demands. It does not say what automation is doing to it — that is what this site's 4 task judgements are for: 2 backed by a verified event, 2 platform inference. VOLO judgement
Sources and rules#
- Each block says where it comes from: this site's own judgements, O*NET, the U.S. Department of Education's CIP–SOC crosswalk, the European ESCO classification and its official crosswalk to O*NET, the ILO's ISCO-08, Singapore's SSOC 2024, or something computed mechanically from those. Nothing on this page is a rating we made up.
- O*NET's importance ratings are used only to order and shorten the lists. They are never combined with this site's impact index or evidence counts.
- The fit between our page and an O*NET occupation is our judgement and is stated per code: same job, broader, part of it, or only the closest there is.
- The ESCO and ISCO-08 fits are derived mechanically from the official ESCO–O*NET crosswalk; where we override it, we say why in our data (for example, the crosswalk pairs radiologists with radiographers, which is a different job). The SSOC 2024 fit is our reading of the Singapore Department of Statistics' own titles and definitions. Official names are shown as their publishers write them; we do not translate them.
- Each task is matched only against the detailed work activities O*NET lists for the codes this page maps to. Where nothing fits, the page says why instead of forcing a match: work O*NET does not describe yet (used only for tasks we judge to be emerging), or nothing in O*NET's list for this occupation. An alignment never changes a task's direction, its basis or the impact index.
- Rules are read only from this site's verified records. A rule's official name must appear word for word in a record that reads it, so no name is made up; a policy mandate is read only as 'must', 'must not' or 'funds', because 'should' and 'in principle' are not a mandate. Reading a rule never changes a task's direction, its basis or the impact index.
- How these pieces fit together — objects, links and the actions that change them — is drawn as one diagram: The VOLO ontology
- ESCO (European Commission), occupation records from the ESCO API; CC BY 4.0. ESCO–O*NET crosswalk, ESCO Secretariat with the U.S. Department of Labor/ETA, version 1 (Sep 2022), O*NET-SOC 2019 ↔ ESCO v1.1.0; CC BY 4.0. Singapore Department of Statistics, Singapore Standard Occupational Classification 2024 and its correspondence with ISCO-08.
- O*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026 release, U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration, CC BY 4.0. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The translations of O*NET descriptors on this page are ours, not O*NET's.