The Level Green Culture Blog

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

Is your vacuum cleaner broken? Your car not running quite right? Need a new computer, built from scratch?

Rob Kubes is your go-to guy.

When you start a job at Level Green Landscaping, start thinking about the next job up.

If you want to grow your career here, there’s plenty of help.

Branch manager James Kole is a great example.

“I was the new guy on the block,” he says. “Now I’ve been here forever.”

Well, nine years. It kind of flew by.

Kole started at Level Green in 2012 as a supervisor, straight from Pennsylvania State University with a major in landscape contracting and a minor in horticulture.

Level Green is kind of known for its feasts.

Savory Mexican chicken and rice in warm tortillas. Sizzling burgers and grilled kielbasa. Sweet home-baked coffee cake and banana bread.

Team members have long gathered at parks and beaches, or at tables in their own buildings, filling their plates with delicious food and their souls with the nourishment that comes from camaraderie and good conversation.

When robots take over the world in the movies, it’s kind of fun to watch, right?

But when robot mowers start showing up at landscaping companies, even a large popcorn might not keep you from worrying.

Will robot mowers take away your job?

Rosvin Lara has a lot going on as a busy landscaping operations manager, from managing schedules to coordinating equipment and materials to making sure every job is done right.
But he prioritizes people.

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 around $15/hr, 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.