Design, plant and build outdoor spaces. Seasonal work, easy to start, and many end up owning the company.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
An apprenticeship: you are hired by a sponsor, paid while you learn on the job, and go to class for a few weeks at a time. Every fact here is from Skilled Trades Ontario (STO) and the Ontario government. See every Ontario trade side by side
You are paid from your first day. Over the 5,400 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $96,930 before tax while you train, and most sponsors pay more as your skills grow.
The trade on Skilled Trades Ontario's site(opens in a new tab)
Still in high school? In Grade 11 or 12, with at least 14 credits and age 15 or older, you can start an apprenticeship through co-op placements and earn credits at the same time. Ask your school's OYAP recruiter, guidance counsellor or co-op teacher. Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP)(opens in a new tab)
Not ready to find a sponsor? Free pre-apprenticeship programs (up to a year at a college or community agency, tools and books covered, with a work placement) get you ready and in front of employers. Employment Ontario helps you apply. Pre-apprenticeship training(opens in a new tab)
Ontario sets no percentage of full pay for apprentices. Your sponsor agrees your wage with you, and it can never be below the minimum wage: $17.95 an hour from 1 October 2026. Source (opens in a new tab)
Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.
The median pay is about $62,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $44,000 at the lower end to about $85,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
2 to 4 years, on the usual route, and you are paid while you train from the first day.
$500 to $17,700 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
No. There is no licence to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Limited demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$62,000
Lower end
$44,000
Upper end
$85,000
Job Bank's national median is $30 an hour, about $62,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The lower end ($21) and upper end ($40.87) are the bottom and top of the wage range for everyone in the group. General landscaping labourers are counted in a separate Job Bank group, so their pay is not in these figures.
$31.05 an hour
Ontario, about $65,000 a year at 40 hours a week (Job Bank)
Manitoba's median is the lowest, at $21.50. Many companies work April to November, then plow snow or lay crews off on EI (Employment Insurance) over winter.
Roughly, all in
$500 to $17,700
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
Most people in this trade learn on a crew and pay almost nothing. The low end is hand tools, boots and gear with an employer covering the short school blocks and the first Certificate of Qualification exam try free in Ontario once your apprenticeship is complete. The high end is a two year college horticulture diploma paid up front, a fuller kit and the exam. Registered apprentices can use the Canada Apprentice Loan and draw EI (Employment Insurance) during school blocks, but the federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant closed in March 2025, so do not budget around it.
Many people skip school and learn on a crew. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant closed in March 2025. The new federal Red Seal Completion Bonus pays $5,000 if you finish your apprenticeship and get certified in a Red Seal trade on or after April 1, 2025. Applications open November 16, 2026.
Municipal parks and golf courses
Pension, benefits, union.
Outdoors
Summers outside, no cubicle.
Winter off or snow contracts
Mostly your choice.
Company truck
Foremen often drive one home.
Own business
Low startup cost compared with most trades.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A Red Seal apprenticeship or a college diploma, or a crew job that grows into a career.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Grade 12 with biology, math and shop. Some school boards offer landscaping and horticulture courses.
Start on a crew
Any spring
Landscape companies hire every spring. Garden centres and golf courses hire students. Get a driver's licence first.
Register an apprenticeship (optional)
3 years
Ontario calls the trade Horticultural Technician (code 441C). Register with Skilled Trades Ontario, SkilledTradesBC or your province's authority. Ontario requires 6,120 hours: 5,400 on the job plus 720 in school.
Or a college diploma
2 years
2-year horticulture or landscape technician programs at Niagara College, Humber, Fanshawe, Olds College in Alberta, Kwantlen Polytechnic University in BC (British Columbia) and others. Often combined with the apprenticeship.
Certificate of Qualification and Red Seal
After your hours
Pass the exam. The Red Seal title is Landscape Horticulturist.
Biology
Plants, soil, pests.
Math
Quoting jobs, calculating gravel and stone.
Shop
Small engines and building.
Art or design
Layouts and planting plans.
Business
Most companies are small and owner-run.
No province requires a licence to landscape. The Red Seal Landscape Horticulturist ticket matters for municipal jobs, golf courses and design-build firms, and Landscape Ontario's certification programs help you win contracts. Applying pesticides needs a separate provincial licence.
Quebec has two vocational diplomas, both also offered in English, and a voluntary workplace apprenticeship that can lead to the Red Seal.
Secondary III courses
From age 16
The DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies) in Landscaping Operations needs Secondary III language of instruction, second language and math, and you must be 16. A high school diploma also gets you in.
DEP in Landscaping Operations (5320)
About 8 months
1,035 hours at about ten centres, including Montreal, Laval, Mirabel and Saint-Hyacinthe. In English (5820) at the Huntingdon Adult Education and Community Centre.
Or Horticulture and Garden Centre Operations (5390)
About 11 to 13 months
A 1,335 hour DEP on plant care and garden centre work. In English (5890) also at Huntingdon.
Or a 3 year college diploma
3 years
The DEC (Diploma of College Studies) in Landscape and Marketing in Ornamental Horticulture (153.C0) at Collège Montmorency or the Saint-Hyacinthe campus of the Institut de technologie agroalimentaire du Québec.
Workplace apprenticeship
2 to 3 seasons
Once hired, your employer can enrol you in the Quebec government's workplace apprenticeship: at most 3 seasons for landscape construction and 2 for maintenance, coached by an experienced worker.
Red Seal, if you want it
Any time after
Quebec takes part in the Landscape Horticulturist Red Seal. With the Quebec certificate you can apply to sit the interprovincial exam. No licence is needed to work.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Pesticide applicator licence
Provincial exam. Required for lawn care and tree spraying.
Landscape design
Drafting, plant selection and software.
Hardscape and stone
Interlock, retaining walls, natural stone.
Irrigation
Installing and servicing sprinkler systems is a specialty with its own certification.
Golf course turf management
Diploma programs lead to golf course superintendent jobs.
Driver's licence with trailer experience
Small engine and equipment skills
Mowers, compactors, skid steers.
Plant identification
Learn 100 plants by their Latin names and you are ahead of most.
Snowplow experience
Winter work.
This is one of the easiest trades to start a business in: a truck, a trailer, a mower and a few clients. Many Canadian landscapers are self-employed. Growing past a one-truck operation means hiring, quoting and winter cash-flow planning, and that is where most either take off or stall.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Spring and summer: 6:30am at the yard, load the truck, first site by 7:30. A maintenance crew mows, trims and weeds 6 to 10 properties. A construction crew builds one patio or planting bed for days: excavation, gravel base, compaction, stone, plants, mulch. Hot, dusty, done by 4 or 5pm. Winter: plowing at 2am after a storm, or time off.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Landscape Horticulturist joined the national Red Seal list in 2008, alongside electricians and welders. All 10 provinces take part; the three territories do not.
Job Bank counted about 15,100 landscape and horticulture specialists working in Canada in 2023, and 32% of them were 50 or older.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Personal, food and outdoor trades first, then the rest of the field. See every career in skilled trades.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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