Working efficiently enables business owners in the green industry to earn more profit in landscaping service margins. But packing more customers into a route isn’t enough. Landscapers need to deliver exceptional customer experiences at every property.
High-quality equipment is crucial to a job well done in the field, from mowing grass and replenishing garden beds to trimming shrubs and tree care. When you provide your crews with the right landscaping tools, from gas-powered mowers to pruning shears, you’ll optimize how they work.
→ You can increase efficiency in the office with the right technology and software.
Choosing the right tools for your residential or commercial landscaping business can feel overwhelming. This landscaping equipment list highlights some of the best landscaping tools to help grow your business.
Download the template for a free Landscaping Equipment Checklist.
Landscaping hand tools
Hand tools are a more straightforward purchase than gas and electric-powered equipment, but they are essential for professional landscapers to perform landscape maintenance and lawn care services.
1. Shovels
Depending on the size of the job, your shovels and spades may be the fastest way to dig holes, spread mulch, and even pry rocks from the ground. Shovels come in many sizes and materials, ranging from around $20 to several hundred dollars, depending on the type and quality.
While shovels with wooden handles are more affordable, most business owners prefer fiberglass handles with stainless-steel blades, as they last longer and are more comfortable for crews.
2. Shears
Tree and shrub maintenance requires different kinds of shears, both manual and electric.
Hedge shears have long handles and are essential for pruning and shaping shrubbery and trees.
Smaller pruning shears should be on every truck and are better suited for cutting or deadheading flowers.
3. Rakes
Rakes are essential tools for lawn care pros. Beyond raking leaves, they’re necessary for flower bed and lawn cleanup. Rakes come in many sizes and materials, so purchasing rakes that fit your line of work is crucial.
Consider steel rakes for heavy-duty landscaping, such as spreading river rock or removing turf. A plastic leaf rake with a wooden handle may be sufficient for raking up leaves or grass clippings.
4. Edgers
The quality of your edger, whether electric or manual, will determine your ability to cut a clear line around a lawn, garden plot, or flower bed.
A versatile edger can also help you outline new beds before planting flowers or laying mulch.
The main benefit of an edger is the ability to create lines that are cleaner than using a string trimmer.
5. Pole pruners
Investing in high-quality pole pruners, also known as pole saws and tree pruners, can help a landscaping company branch into tree care services.
The pruning saw blade with adjustable pole enable crews to trim damaged and overgrown branches without climbing the tree.
6. Mattock
The mattock is a versatile, heavy-duty tool that crews use for various jobs, including:
Digging
Breaking up rocky soil
Slicing through large roots
Mattocks provide more power than shovels, pruners, and hatchets. The two-sided blade can be attached to either a wood or fiberglass pole.
→ Additional hand tools to include in your landscaping tool list include trowels, spades, loppers, garden hoes, and pitchforks.
Landscaping equipment
Here are some of the top landscaping tools to empower successful landscaping businesses.
7. Wheelbarrow
Durable wheelbarrows are essential for moving heavy objects and preventing injury to your field crews.
Because wheelbarrows endure considerable wear and tear, invest in fiberglass handles versus wooden handles.
8. Lawnmower
Lawnmowers are frequently the most expensive piece of landscaping equipment. Lawn care and landscaping companies rely on mowers to service hundreds of lawns during the season, from smaller homes to sprawling apartment complexes and commercial properties.
→ Similar to a company truck, lawnmowers require routine maintenance to keep running optimally.
Riding, stand-on, or zero-turn mowers all hold larger mowing blades and cover more ground in less time for lawn care maintenance.
9. Grass and hedge trimmers
Grass trimmers, either weed whackers or string trimmers, are critical to eliminate weeds efficiently. This garden tool is vital when crews need to rapidly eliminate weeds in hard-to-reach spaces, such as around trees, in flower beds, and more.
→ Cordless grass trimmers help crews work faster and eliminate the need for a power source at the job site.
Hedge trimmers have flat blades for shrub maintenance, cutting through tough hedges to create a smooth, polished look—consider a lightweight model with ergonomic handles since crews need to hold the tool over long periods while doing precision work.
10. Blower
Gas-powered or electric leaf blowers come in hand-held and backpack versions, offering ease and portability for cleaning lawn cuttings and leaves.
→ Backpack models cost more than hand-held blowers but provide more comfort and utility for clearing large properties.
High-quality blowers can help expand your service offerings, such as providing minor snow removal.
Some additional lawn care tools that may help improve service quality include:
Fertilizer sprayers
Chainsaws
Post diggers
Ladders
Landscaping vehicles
Depending on the landscaping or lawn care business's services, purchasing various heavy equipment, such as landscaping trucks and utility vehicles, may be necessary.
11. UTV
A utility vehicle, or UTV for short, provides exceptional utility and flexibility for landscapers to haul materials and move quickly around a job site.
UTVs can also tow trailers if you need to haul away landscaping debris or move heavy equipment. The large rubber wheels cause less turf damage than a work truck.
12. Trucks
Landscaping often involves moving heavy equipment, such as lawnmowers, tractors, aerators, and bulk materials like soil, mulch, pavers, rocks, and plants.
Landscaping trucks come in multiple sizes and configurations, from small pickups to larger flatbeds and dump trucks, to transport material and equipment efficiently, saving time and eliminating multiple trips.
In addition to UTVs and standard trucks, some landscaping companies utilize spray trucks, stump grinders, bucket trucks, and spray trucks for pest control and fertilizer.
Other essential landscaping tools & equipment
The following landscaping tools include power tools, safety gear, and other equipment on the job site.
13. Safety Equipment
High-quality safety equipment is essential to protect your crews from injury on the job site.
As a business owner, you need to equip technicians with safety gear including:
Protective gloves
Ear protection and safety glasses
Hard hats
Knee pads and back braces
14. Buckets
Every work truck needs an assortment of buckets in various shapes and sizes to transport job site materials, such as:
Soil and mulch
Gravel, sand, rocks
Plants, debris, leaves
Gardening hand tools
You can improve efficiency by using buckets to set ratios for mixing soil blends, concrete, mortar, and other construction materials.
15. Spreader
Broadcast fertilizer spreaders improve consistency when applying granular lawn fertilizer across a customer’s property. While relatively inexpensive, spreaders prevent application errors when using lawn fertilizer—applying too much in a small area causes lawns to die.
16. Snowblower
Many lawn care and landscaping businesses depend on snow removal services to maintain revenue during the winter months. Clearing snow with a shovel is inefficient, so most companies invest in snowblowers to quickly remove snow from sidewalks, parking lots, and driveways.
Snowblowers can be powered by electricity, gasoline, or battery.
Gasoline-powered snow blowers are more powerful and suitable for larger areas, while electric models are quieter and require less maintenance.
17. Lawn aerator
Lawn aeration services promote healthier root growth and overall lawn health for customers.
Manual lawn aerators are hand-held and used to aerate small plots such as residential lawns. For commercial landscaping contracts with larger grass areas, lawn care businesses need motorized walk-behind and tractor-mounted aerators.
Digital landscaping tools
While hand tools and other equipment help landscaping companies perform physical work, business owners can leverage all-in-one business management software to simplify back-office work, including:
Estimating
Accounting
Customer management
Scheduling
Crew tracking
Bringing all business operations into a cloud-based platform enables business owners to stay informed and involved in running their company from anywhere.
18. Job costing, invoicing, and accounting apps
Business management software streamlines processes and reduces human error when pricing jobs and keeping the books in order.
Job costing: It’s difficult to bid jobs profitably if you don’t understand the precise amount your shop spends on labor, materials, and other costs.
With job costing software, landscapers gain real-time insights into how their actual costs—broken out by labor, materials, and other expenses—compare to estimated costs.
Invoicing: With invoicing software, landscaping companies can quickly generate invoices from a mobile device, identify overdue and ready-to-send invoices, and collect credit card payments.
Accounting: Accounting software provides complete financial visibility by tracking expenses, revenue, and timekeeping in a single hub and seamlessly integrates with bookkeeping software to ensure accurate accounting for landscaping businesses.
19. Customer relationship management software
CRM software streamlines interactions and relationships with potential leads and existing customers.
CRM software provides a central platform for storing, organizing, and analyzing customer information and interactions.
Landscaping businesses leverage CRM software to enhance customer satisfaction, increase sales, and improve overall business performance.
With Aspire’s CRM software, landscaping companies can reduce data entry, enhance targeted customer communication, improve team collaboration, and collect rich customer data to increase sales and grow their businesses.
20. Scheduling and routing software
Rather than relying on whiteboards or spreadsheets, scheduling and routing software helps landscaping companies improve accuracy and flexibility while maximizing crew time to boost revenue.
Aspire’s scheduling software’s drag-and-drop functionality enables dispatchers to:
Respond to scheduling curveballs
Move a job ticket to a new day
Reassign crews
From the included dispatch board, schedulers and dispatchers gain complete visibility into work tickets in the pipeline, making it easier to ensure materials and supplies are in stock for upcoming projects.
With Crew Control software, a lighter version of Aspire’s core software for small businesses, dispatchers can leverage the weekly route planner to see all jobs for the week ahead in a single map. Dispatchers can see where crews are currently working—and where they’re scheduled next—making it easier to adjust schedules quickly.
21. Crew tracking and communication software
Crew tracking software helps the office monitor and communicate with field crews in real time. The software helps landscaping and lawn care companies manage labor costs by:
Reducing unproductive time
Anticipating hiring needs and crew capacity
Tracking overtime
Spotlighting accurate job costs and performance data
Aspire’s landscaping crew tracking apps facilitate two-way email and text communication between field crews and office staff. In addition to enabling crews to clock in and out, the mobile app shows scheduled work orders for the day or week ahead and specific crew assignments.
Schedule a demonstration to see why Aspire is a valuable landscaping tool for business owners
Regardless of whether you run a small landscaping business or commercial lawn care enterprise, you need high-quality tools to get the job done, from essential hand tools to cutting-edge software and apps. Ensure you bring the right tools to the job site by downloading the free Landscaping Equipment Checklist.
Aspire’s comprehensive landscape business management software optimizes every aspect of running a profitable business, including:
Ready to see how Aspire can help you grow your landscaping business? Reach out today for a free demo.
866-727-7473
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390 S Woods Mill Road, Suite 200
Chesterfield, MO 63017
