The Level Green Culture Blog

Behind the scenes and insider information for landscaping careers and green industry jobs.

The crews at Level Green Landscaping’s North Branch don’t wear your average, boring cloth safety masks.

They sport Snoopy. Planets. Cat masks that proclaim, “You had me at meow.”

They’re hand-crafted by Kathy Schneider, the effervescent mom of branch manager Joey Schneider. Nothing about her is boring.

Kathy sews 10 to 15 masks for the branch each weekend. Joey brings them to work on Mondays, and operations manager Jose Ruiz hands them out to grateful crews and managers.

As a landscaping company, Level Green Landscaping does a lot of community outreach that has to do with digging in the dirt, from helping school kids plant vegetables to teaching the community how to create rain gardens.

But our commitment to diversity means we also think outside the planter box.

First things first: yes, that’s a photo of Marcene with famous gymnast Gabby Douglas, two-time gold medalist at the 2012 Olympic Summer Games.

Champions hang out together. 

When Marcene was 10, she was the gymnastics floor exercise champion for the whole state of Maryland.

She spent hours practicing in the gym four nights a week and all day on Saturdays.

“It gave me discipline and focus that I’ve used my whole life,” she says.

When Brian Outten interviewed for a job as shop manager at Level Green Landscaping, co-owner Bill Hardy told him he wouldn’t have to worry about Brian showing up late for work.

Brian served in the U.S. Army, where being punctual is a way of life.

That's just one of the traits Brian brings to his landscaping work, as a military veteran. 

When Brian Outten joined the U.S. Army out of high school, he learned he’d be a 63 Bravo, a light wheel mechanic, changing oil and replacing tires on military vehicles.

Imagine hosting 100 industry professionals at your company, showing them exactly how you run your business, then asking them to tell you what they think about you.

The good — and the not-so-good.

Terrifying? Or invigorating?

It can be a bit of both when Jim Paluch of JP Horizons People Solutions organizes a Face to Face Review at your landscaping company.

When Dafne Aguilar started at Level Green Landscaping as a crew member three years ago, it was the first paid job she ever had.

She’d been pretty busy raising three kids.

“Before this, my job was mom,” she says. 

She didn’t know anything about landscaping. Her operations manager told her she had a lot to learn, but he was willing to teach her, if she was willing to learn.

She was. Now she operates a standing mower like a boss. 

In fact, she is a boss. It wasn’t long before Dafne was promoted to driver, then supervisor.

Zacharie Jackson was pretty sure she’d be studying bacteria for a living after graduating with a degree in biology from Marymount University.

Then she got her hands in the dirt, during an internship at the National Arboretum in Washington DC, spending her days tending glossy boxwood, bright day lilies and fragrant catmint.

So, when a recruiter contacted her about a job at Level Green Landscaping, that career studying bacteria would have to wait.

The plants were calling.

Hector Diaz learned how to work hard at an early age, growing up with seven siblings on his parents’ small farm in Guatemala. 

They grew corn and beans and raised cattle, dairy cows, pigs and chickens.

“I started feeding cows when I was 7 or 8 years old, after school,” Hector says. “Ever since we were little, my father would tell us, ‘We are not rich, so I can’t give you money. But I’ll teach you to work hard, and by doing that, I know you’ll be successful in life.’”

His dad was right.

If you love being outdoors, working with your hands, solving problems and being part of a team, there are lots of job opportunities in the landscape and grounds maintenance field.

Crew members plant flowers, mow lawns and make landscapes beautiful. Landscape designers create artistry from the ground up. Field supervisors combine people skills with organizational know-how to make sure jobs are done just right.

Let’s take a look at some landscape maintenance jobs.