The Level Green Culture Blog

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

Looking for a good job? Come talk to us. We need you!

The landscaping industry has been struggling with a labor shortage for the past few years, and lately, it’s even more of a struggle to find good workers.

Companies like Level Green Landscaping are competing with lots of other employers looking for good workers, says Doug Delano, co-founder and managing partner at Level Green.

“We hired a full-time recruiter, but we’re still having issues,” he says. “Everybody’s in the same boat. Everybody’s looking for people.”

Customers, please be patient with us.

“We’re not getting things done as quickly,” Delano says. “We’re getting grass cut, but you may not get your mulch as quickly. It’s taking longer to get to enhancements.”

Meanwhile, if you know a hard worker looking for a good job, send them our way.

Pay is $15 an hour, with no experience necessary.

“We’re averaging 50-55 hours a week right now, so you can make decent money at $15 an hour, plus overtime,” Delano says. “We’re a growing company, so we have a significant amount of work.”

Other perks:

There’s a scenario in which Jennifer Ruggeri can use a lot of her skills at once and it goes like this:

She skydives from an airplane into a kayak on a chilly stream and journeys down the river until she comes upon a group of adventurers — hungry, cold and wet from falling into the water.

Jennifer quickly assembles a tasty charcuterie board of meats, nuts, and cheeses.

Then she knits warm sweaters for everybody to ward off the chill and uses sign language to communicate, as the adventurers are all hearing impaired.

Sometimes a spring landscaping cleanup is about more than cutting back perennials and hauling away weeds.

It’s about making a place tidy and fresh, so the people who live there can be proud to call it home.

A group of volunteers from Level Green Landscaping spent a recent morning cleaning up the property at The Light House, Inc. in Annapolis, a homeless prevention support center that provides shelter and services, helping people as they transition toward jobs, housing, and self sufficiency.

“People live there, both families and single individuals,” says Paul Wisniewski, division manager at Level Green. “There’s a kitchen where they give out meals. A community center with computers that’s a big gathering place. We want to make this place, their home, presentable.”

Beyond providing food, clothing, and shelter, The Light House also addresses the underlying causes of homelessness, including lack of marketable job skills, addiction, and the debilitating effects of mental and physical health issues.

It’s a big mission that leaves little time to worry about the property’s landscaping.

“They rely on volunteers to help out,” Wisniewski says. “We’d rather they focus on the good work that they do and let us help with the landscaping.”

So that’s what happened in early April when a group from Level Green’s corporate headquarters and its Anne Arundel County branch converged at the Light House for a morning of spring cleanup.

One summer during college Adam Smith landed a job as a whitewater rafting guide in Colorado.

He had no experience in this adventurous sport, but drove straight through from Maryland to the mountain state and was ready to learn how to navigate the Arkansas River. Of course, there’d be training.

“I threw myself into class 3 and 4 rapids to see what it would be like if I flipped my boat,” he recalls.

Yikes.

Should you be in the landscaping business?

Maybe you grow the best wisteria on the block, you name your garden tools, and you’re an organized dynamo. Oh, and you have a degree in landscape management.

You’re a natural, right?

Larry Leon has some questions for you that might be eye opening.

When Ashley Beazer muses about landscaping and why she likes it, you’d never know she’s a college sophomore who’s just started learning the ropes.

A confident deep thinker, Ashley kind of wows you.

It’s no surprise she won a $1,000 college scholarship through the National Association of Landscape Professionals, funded by contributor Level Green Landscaping.

A sophomore studying Landscape Management at
Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, Ashley talks about landscaping as the perfect fit for her multifaceted self.

“I discovered it’s a mix of business and art and science, “ she says. “That was appealing to me. I didn’t have to choose to be only a scientist or only an artist or only a businesswoman. I could do it all, and in a setting that I loved — outside, in nature.”

She knows she’s not the only one who loves to be outside.

“It’s a place where people make connections and discover meaning,” she says. “You connect with family outside, with friends, with yourself, with God. Being a part of creating and maintaining that space is special. It’s being part of something bigger than you, and I like that.”

A sign above Lynn Garris’ office door read “Boss Lady,” and it was true.

Lynn knew everything about Level Green Landscaping, could solve most any problem, and if you were new at work, you might have been a little afraid of her at first.

But that office door with the Boss Lady sign was also a portal of sorts, to a place where everybody knew they could talk about anything, with no judgement, and no fear of their words ever leaving Lynn’s office.

Lynn’s friends and colleagues at Level Green Landscaping are remembering her kind listening ear, her humor, and her delicious food as they mourn the loss of their beloved office manager, who died on January 30th after an illness.

It’s just the way she would have wanted to be remembered.

Sometimes the path to your perfect place isn’t straight, like the crisp edge of a newly laid patio, but curving, like a meandering garden path.

Jenna Visco thought she wanted to be a chemist. Then she was pretty sure she wanted to be a landscape designer.

Nope and nope.

Is it a big deal that Dave Briggs has worked at Level Green Landscaping for 15 years?

Depends on who you ask.

Around here, it’s a pretty big deal. Dave was the first account manager to come on board, back in 2005 when just a handful of employees worked here.

But it’s all a matter of perspective, Dave says. His twin brother, Tom, has worked at the same electrical company for 35 years.

Leave it to your twin brother to show you up.

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.