Alabama · Landscaping licensing · official-source guide
The Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries licenses landscaping at state level. Its Horticulture Professional Services License covers Landscape Design, Setting of Landscape Plants, Tree Surgery and Ornamental and Turf Pest Control, costs $175 a year per main office, and must be held before you advertise the work. Landscape architect is a separate protected title under a different board.
State-level license
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Verify a licenseVerified against agency sources on 2026-10-12. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
Alabama licenses landscaping at state level, and the agency is not a contractor board. The Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries runs it through the Pesticide Management Division. The department issues a Horticulture Professional Services License to businesses that engage in and solicit for Landscape Design, Tree Surgery, Setting of Landscape Plants and Ornamental and Turf Pest Control. The division describes its own mission as regulating individuals or companies that engage in the commercial application of pesticides and structural pest control or horticultural activities. The license belongs to the company, and the company must have a certified operator who has passed the exam for each category it sells. Section 2-28-4 of the Code of Alabama is the authority. It says that before any person engages in professional work or services as defined in that chapter, or before any person may solicit the work through advertising or in any other manner, the person shall apply for and obtain an annual permit from the commissioner. The statute caps the annual permit fee the Board of Agriculture and Industries may set at $200. Rule 80-10-9-.03 sets the current figure at $175 for each main office location for professional work other than structural pest control. Two things follow for a contractor who has to go win work. Soliciting is itself regulated, so the permit must exist before the advertising runs, not before the first job starts. And the license is granted category by category, so a company certified only for Setting of Landscape Plants is not permitted to sell ornamental and turf spraying.
Sourcesagi.alabama.gov 1agi.alabama.gov 2agi.alabama.gov 3agi.alabama.gov 4
Rule 80-10-9-.04 defines the work, and the definitions decide which category a landscaping company has to hold. Landscape Horticultural and Floricultural Work covers persons engaged in landscaping and setting of plants, or in the sale of plants for which the seller contracts to render future service. The rule splits that into two subcategories. A Landscape Horticulturist engages in the planning, location and management of landscape plant material, including work that involves a design ability and proficiency suitable to make a graphic presentation with specifications for a landscape planting. That subcategory maps to the Landscape Design code, LD. A Landscape Planter engages in the actual setting of landscape plants and must have adequate knowledge and ability to perform cultural, pruning and other practices needed to establish and maintain the planting. That maps to Setting of Landscape Plants, SLP. Ornamental and Turf Pest Control, OTPS, covers persons who apply measures to prevent, control or eradicate pests of ornamental plants, shade trees and turf, and the rule includes nut or fruit trees when they are used as ornamentals or shade trees. Tree Surgery, TS, covers cavity filling or repairing, bracing, cabling and wound treatment of shrubs and trees. A design and build firm that draws the plan, plants it and then sprays it is looking at three categories, not one. The department notes that only the OTPS category carries a commercial certification number and an expiration date on the horticulture license application.
The company holds the license, but a certified operator stands behind it. Rule 80-10-9-.06 sets the qualification for the horticulture side, and it is lighter than the structural side. Applicants for certification as supervisor for ornamental and turf pest control, landscape horticultural and floricultural work, and tree surgery submit a written statement outlining their training and experience in the work for which the examination is requested. There is no fixed number of years in the rule for those categories. Structural pest control applicants, by contrast, must show one or more years of working experience, or a college degree including entomology, or a year of equivalent institutional training. The department's own exam application lists the horticulture supervisor fields exactly as Landscape Horticulturist for LD, Landscape Planter for SLP, Tree Surgery, and Ornamental and Turf Pest Control Supervisor. Rule 80-10-9-.07 sets the schedule: examinations are held on the third Tuesday in March, June, September and December, and the rule asks for the application at least 30 days before the date, while the current form on the department's site asks for it at least seven days before. Special examinations are given when the commissioner thinks it advisable. The examination fee is $75 per examination under rule 80-10-9-.08, paid at the time the exam is given, and an applicant who fails may test again. The horticulture license application lets a company list additional certified supervisors with no extra fee, and it states that the certified operator is responsible for work the licensee performs.
The money is small and the calendar is the part that catches people. An annual Horticulture Professional Services License costs $175. The license year runs from October 1 and expires September 30, and the department says these licenses must be renewed annually. Rule 80-10-9-.03 ties the $175 to each main office location for non-structural professional work. If the permit fee is not paid by November 1, or within 31 days of the date it is due, a delinquent penalty of $50 is added. The horticulture license application is blunter: all professional services companies in operation are required to maintain a license continuously, are considered delinquent as of October 1, and additional civil penalties of up to $3,000 can and will be applied. Commercial applicator certification is billed separately from the company license. The department's commercial pesticide applicator permit renewal form sets the permit fee at $45 for each category. Examinations are $75 each. For contrast, a Structural Professional Services License costs $175 for a main office, $75 for a branch office and $50 for a sub office, plus $100 for each category of work certified, which is why a landscaping firm that adds termite or household pest work changes its cost base. Nothing in the fee schedule is tied to contract size, so a one-truck mowing and planting outfit and a large design and build company pay the same $175 for the same categories.
Sourcesagi.alabama.gov 1agi.alabama.gov 2agi.alabama.gov 3agi.alabama.gov 4
Alabama runs a second, separate system for the title. The Alabama Board of Examiners of Landscape Architects licenses individuals, and Section 34-17-20 of the Code of Alabama makes it unlawful for any person to practice landscape architecture or to use the term or title landscape architect or registered landscape architect unless licensed under that chapter. The board's stated purpose is to safeguard public welfare, health and property by determining who is qualified to practice and be called a landscape architect. The enforcement language is specific about marketing. Section 34-17-7 says any individual who, without a valid unrevoked certificate, uses the title or term landscape architect in any sign, card, listing, advertisement, or in any other manner implies or indicates that he or she is a landscape architect, is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor. The board may also go to circuit court for an injunction, and on a permanent injunction the court may fine the offending party up to $5,000 plus costs, including investigative costs and attorney fees, for each offense. Section 34-17-4 adds that practice is a personal right, that final drawings, specifications, plans and reports issued or filed for public record must be dated and bear the signature and seal of the landscape architect who prepared or approved them, and that a corporation, limited liability company or partnership may use the title only if a licensed officer, member or partner is designated as responsible and every employee acting as a landscape architect is licensed. Changes in those individuals must be filed with the board within 30 days.
Sourcesabela.alabama.gov 1abela.alabama.gov 2abela.alabama.gov 3
Section 34-17-21 sets the floor. An applicant must be at least 19 years old and must have graduated from a college or school of landscape architecture approved by the board, with proof of practical experience in landscape architectural work satisfactory to the board. Each complete year of study in an approved program counts as one year of practical experience, and the applicant must show enough additional experience to total five years of combined education and practical experience, then one more year of practical experience to total six. A master's or doctoral degree in landscape architecture satisfies the five-year combination on its own. The eight years of practical experience route, used in place of a degree, is closed to anyone who did not begin accruing that experience before August 1, 2012. The board's own description matches: a licensee holds at least a bachelor's degree in landscape architecture, has passed the Landscape Architect Registration Examination, and has at least one additional year working directly with a registered landscape architect, with education and experience totaling at least six years. The board lists the exam's four sections as Project and Construction Management, Inventory and Analysis, Design, and Grading, Drainage and Construction Documentation. On top of the national exam, the applicant must pass a state supplemental exam written by the board on the Alabama statute, the board rules and the code of conduct. The board's application instructions ask for $500 with the application, effective August 1, 2019, plus proof of citizenship or lawful presence, references returned directly to the board office, and transcripts or a diploma. Every applicant is voted on individually.
Sourcesabela.alabama.gov 1abela.alabama.gov 2abela.alabama.gov 3
Section 34-17-25 prints the statutory fee schedule. The fee for application to the board is $150. An original certificate is $50 and a duplicate certificate is $50. The annual license fee is $150. The delinquent penalty fee is $50. Administration of the supplemental examination on the Alabama statutes is $150. Reinstatement is $300 and inactive status is $75. The examination or reexamination fee is set by the board at no more than the actual cost of preparing and administering the exam. The board's 2026 renewal form carries the same numbers in practice: an individual renewal fee of $150 and a late penalty of $50 if the renewal is received or postmarked after January 31. The board's site states plainly that renewals are due by January 31 and offers online renewal. Continuing education is where licenses actually lapse. The board's guidelines require 16 hours of continuing education completed within the previous renewal period, with a minimum of 8 hours related to maintaining or improving the health, safety and welfare of the public. Hours earned after October 15 can be applied to the following year as long as the current year's requirement is already met, and the renewal form caps carryover at 16 hours. Failure to include the health, safety and welfare portion results in expiration of the license effective December 31. Section 34-17-24 backs that up with a statutory sequence of delinquency, penalty and reinstatement conditioned on completing the required continuing education.
Sourcesabela.alabama.gov 1abela.alabama.gov 2abela.alabama.gov 3abela.alabama.gov 4
The most useful paragraph in the Alabama landscape architecture act, for a contractor, is the exemption list. Section 34-17-27 says the chapter shall not be construed to require licensing in a set of named cases. One of them is the practice of any nurseryman, general or landscape contractor, and the statute spells out that such practice includes design, planning, location and arrangements of plantings or other ornamental features. Another covers the practice of arborists, foresters, gardeners, home builders and horticulturists. The list also exempts work done under the supervision of a registered landscape architect by someone who does not assume responsible charge of design or supervision, incidental landscape architectural work by registered architects, engineers and land surveyors or their supervised employees, employees of the United States government working in Alabama for the government, and the practice of planning as customarily done by regional or urban planners. Read the two statutes together and the line is clear. A licensed Alabama landscaping company may design a planting plan, locate it, arrange ornamental features and build it, and it needs no landscape architect on staff to do that. What it may not do is call itself a landscape architect, advertise landscape architectural services, or sign and seal drawings filed for public record. Section 34-17-4 reserves the seal for licensees. The board's own list of projects a licensed landscape architect may undertake includes grading and drainage, stormwater management, retaining walls, pavement systems, water features and irrigation plans, which is the overlap zone where larger jobs usually pull a licensee in.
Alabama has no separate irrigation contractor license, and that is the wrong thing to be relieved about. The State of Alabama Plumbers and Gas Fitters Examining Board certifies and regulates plumbers and gas fitters statewide, and the definition it works from is broad. Section 34-37-1 defines plumbing, plumbing systems or plumbing work as all work associated with the installation, repair or replacement of pipes, fixtures or other apparatus necessary either for supplying water or for removing liquid or waterborne waste located on private property. The same definition expressly names installed fixtures, backflow prevention devices, drainage, vents and water distribution systems on private property. An irrigation main teed off a potable supply, and the backflow preventer that protects that supply, sit inside that wording. Section 34-37-6 makes it unlawful for any person or legal entity to contract, engage in, offer to engage, or convey the impression that it is certified in plumbing unless it holds a certificate in force at the time the work is offered, performed, directed or superintended. The board also registers the legal entity, not just the individual, and a business must have an active employee registered as its principal master plumber. A violation of the chapter is punished as a Class A misdemeanor, and the board may issue a cease and desist order on its own. Practical reading for a landscaping firm: price the sprinkler zones yourself, and either hold the certification or bring in a certified master plumber for the connection and the backflow device. Ask the board where your specific scope falls before you bid it.
Sourcespgfb.alabama.gov 1pgfb.alabama.gov 2pgfb.alabama.gov 3
Bigger hardscape and site work can pull a landscaping company into a third board. The Alabama Licensing Board for General Contractors licenses prime contractors and subcontractors and reported 10,594 current licensees. Its prime application lists Landscaping and Irrigation among the specialty classifications a contractor may request, alongside Athletic Fields, Concrete, Fencing and Solar Projects, and it requires three completed projects in prior years for each specialty requested. The application also notes that classifications printed in red require Alabama certification cards, and the sample list of boards it names includes the Department of Agriculture, the Plumbers and Gas Fitters board, and the Department of Environmental Management. The application states that no local cards or certificates are accepted. A prime application costs $300 and must be on file 30 days before a board meeting, which the board holds quarterly, and every prime must pass a business and law exam administered by PSI. A subcontractor application costs $150 and needs three references from general contractors, architects, engineers or awarding authorities. All applicants must show a minimum net worth and working capital of $10,000, and a line of credit may raise working capital only after that minimum is met. Bid limits are set from the financial statement, and deficits are not accepted. One change is live now. The board says amendments to Section 34-8-7 took effect October 1, 2026 under Act 2026-396, adding an exemption for residential swimming pool construction and repair and new exemptions for certain routine maintenance, repair, cleaning and facility support services. The board asks contractors to raise specific projects with it before bidding.
Sourcesgenconbd.alabama.gov 1genconbd.alabama.gov 2genconbd.alabama.gov 3genconbd.alabama.gov 4genconbd.alabama.gov 5
A fourth board sits over residential work. The State of Alabama Home Builders Licensure Board says its mission is consumer protection through regulation of the residential construction and remodeling industries, and that it is authorized to license and regulate those industries under Title 34, Chapter 14A of the Code of Alabama. That matters to a landscaping company whose work drifts into structures attached to a home, outdoor kitchens, roofed pavilions or remodeling scope bundled into a yard project. The board issues unlimited, limited and roofers licenses. For an unlimited license the applicant takes and passes the Alabama Home Builders exams through the board's testing provider, Prov, with passing scores of 70 on the business and law exam and 66 on the skills exam. For a limited or roofers license the applicant instead supplies a copy of a currently held business or occupational license as a contractor issued by a municipality, township or county in the state, held on or before one year prior to the application. Unlimited and limited applicants send a current credit report directly from a credit reporting agency. A roofers license applicant posts a $10,000 license and permit bond naming the board as obligee. Corporations and limited liability companies add a certificate of compliance from the Alabama Department of Revenue and notarized minutes identifying the qualifying representative. A mailed application package costs $25, or you download it free. The board's own front page warns that law enforcement may charge unlicensed homebuilders with a felony, so scope creep here is not a paperwork problem.
None of the four Alabama systems treats an out-of-state credential as automatic. The general contractors board states that it has reciprocity with Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee, and that an applicant must have been licensed for one year in the same classification being requested in Alabama. The out-of-state license verification form travels inside the prime application. For the title, Section 34-17-26 lets the Alabama Board of Examiners of Landscape Architects recognize a license from another state or country on payment of the current board fee and on two showings: that the other jurisdiction maintained a system and standard of qualifications and examinations substantially equivalent to Alabama's at the time it issued the license, and that it gives similar recognition to Alabama licenses. Section 34-17-23 separately lets the board exempt an applicant from examination in defined circumstances. The board's application instructions set out two different routes, one for applicants who hold a Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards record and one for applicants who do not, and the second route asks for license verification from every state where the applicant is licensed, a current continuing education report and a copy of the diploma or transcripts. Both routes still require the Alabama state supplemental exam on the statute, the rules and the code of conduct, and both carry the $500 application remittance. On the agriculture side, the Department of Agriculture and Industries publishes a separate application for reciprocal commercial pesticide applicator certification, handled by a named reciprocity contact in the division.
Sourcesgenconbd.alabama.gov 1abela.alabama.gov 2abela.alabama.gov 3agi.alabama.gov 4
Alabama regulates the outside of your business, not only the inside. Rule 80-10-9-.13 requires that all vehicles and mobile equipment used by persons while soliciting or engaging in professional service work covered by Chapter 28 of Title 2 be marked for easy identification, with printed identification including the name of the permittee in letters not less than three inches in size on a contrasting colored background. That applies to a landscaping truck and to towed or mobile equipment used in the work. The plumbing side is stricter about placement. Section 34-37-6 requires the business name registered with the plumbing board to be displayed in a prominent manner on two sides of each service or construction vehicle, with lettering a minimum of two inches in height. The statute also bars conveying the impression that you are certified in plumbing when you are not, which reaches website copy and truck lettering as much as a signed contract. On the title side, Section 34-17-7 reaches any sign, card, listing or advertisement that implies the person is a landscape architect. The safe advertising claim for most Alabama landscaping companies is the one that is true and checkable: name the Horticulture Professional Services License, name the categories you hold, such as Landscape Design or Ornamental and Turf Pest Control, and give the permit number a customer can type into the state search. Do not write landscape architect, landscape architectural design or certified plumber unless the matching credential is in hand.
Sourcesagi.alabama.gov 1pgfb.alabama.gov 2abela.alabama.gov 3
Alabama attaches the penalty to soliciting as well as to performing. Section 2-28-11 says any person who engages in professional work or services as defined in that chapter, or who solicits such work through advertising or in any other manner, without holding the required permit, or who violates any requirement of the chapter or the rules, is guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction shall be fined not less than $25 and not more than $500, and within the court's discretion may also be imprisoned for up to six months. The same section gives the circuit court jurisdiction to grant a temporary restraining order or a permanent injunction, without bond, restraining any person from performing or soliciting the work without a valid permit or after a permit has been revoked. Rule 80-10-9-.25 routes rule violations back to that statute. The department's own horticulture license application warns that additional civil penalties of up to $3,000 can and will be applied to a company operating delinquent. The title statute is separate and heavier in one respect: using the term landscape architect without a certificate is a Class A misdemeanor under Section 34-17-7, and a permanent injunction can carry a court fine of up to $5,000 plus investigative costs and attorney fees for each offense. Unlicensed plumbing is a Class A misdemeanor as well, and the plumbing board can issue a standalone cease and desist order. The Home Builders Licensure Board states that law enforcement may charge unlicensed homebuilders with a felony.
Sourcesagi.alabama.gov 1agi.alabama.gov 2agi.alabama.gov 3abela.alabama.gov 4pgfb.alabama.gov 5hblb.alabama.gov 6
Every one of these credentials is publicly searchable, which is worth more to a landscaping company than it costs. The Department of Agriculture and Industries runs a Pesticide Applicator Search that lets anyone search by name, county, certification expiration date or permit number, and returns the name, address, license type, permit number and permit expiration date. Commercial applicators can also pull their own recertification point status there. The Alabama Board of Examiners of Landscape Architects runs a landscape architect search on its site, so a homeowner can confirm in seconds whether the firm calling itself a landscape architecture practice has a licensee behind it. The general contractors board publishes a license roster and frames it to consumers with the question of whether their contractor is legitimate. The Home Builders Licensure Board publishes licensee tools and a complaint route as well. Two moves follow. First, put the permit number and the exact category names on the estimate, the site sign and the contact page, because a prospect who can verify a claim without calling anyone stops comparing you to the unlicensed bid. Second, expect that your competitors are searchable too, and that a lapsed September 30 renewal shows up in the same record a customer is reading. Each board also takes complaints: the agriculture division publishes a consumer complaint form for professional services, the landscape architects board publishes a complaint form, and the plumbing board takes unlicensed contractor complaints directly.
Sourcesagi.alabama.gov 1abela.alabama.gov 2bela-search.kalmservices.net 3genconbd.alabama.gov 4agi.alabama.gov 5pgfb.alabama.gov 6
Alabama does not add a separate municipal landscaping license on top of the state permit, but it does require a municipal business license almost everywhere you work, and the two are wired together. The Alabama Department of Revenue explains that Act 2006-586 directs all state boards and agencies that regulate licensing of businesses or occupations to notify the department in writing of their regulatory requirements, and requires the department to compile a list of those boards and distribute it to all municipal license officers. The department states that beginning with the 2008 license year, any business entity in an occupation shown on that list should present a permit or certificate from the regulatory board or agency before being issued a municipal business license. In practice that means the Horticulture Professional Services License is the document the city asks for before it issues the business license, not the reverse, so a new landscaping company in Birmingham, Montgomery, Huntsville or Mobile should sequence the state permit first. The department also publishes the governing acts for the municipal side, including Act 2017-415 on municipal business delivery licenses, Act 2018-411 on persons traveling through a municipality, and Act 2025-408 on business license annual reports and appeals. Crews that cross city lines all week should read the delivery license and pass-through rules rather than assume one license covers the metro. Fees and application mechanics are set by each municipality, so confirm the amount with the city clerk or revenue office for every jurisdiction you actually sell into.
Sourcesrevenue.alabama.gov
These are common details other guides publish about Alabama, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
Yes. The Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries issues a Horticulture Professional Services License to companies that engage in or solicit Landscape Design, Setting of Landscape Plants, Tree Surgery or Ornamental and Turf Pest Control. Section 2-28-4 requires the annual permit before you perform the work or advertise for it.
The department states that an annual Horticulture Professional Services License costs $175. Rule 80-10-9-.03 sets the same $175 for each main office location for non-structural professional work. Commercial applicator certification is billed separately, and the department's renewal form sets that permit fee at $45 for each category.
The license period begins October 1 and expires September 30 each year. Rule 80-10-9-.03 adds a $50 delinquent penalty if the fee is not paid by November 1 or within 31 days of its due date. The license application states that companies are considered delinquent as of October 1.
Both are covered, under different categories. Setting of Landscape Plants covers the actual setting of plants under rule 80-10-9-.04. Ornamental and Turf Pest Control covers applying measures to prevent, control or eradicate pests of ornamental plants, shade trees and turf. A company that plants and sprays needs both categories.
Only if a licensee stands behind it. Section 34-17-20 makes it unlawful to use the term landscape architect or registered landscape architect without a license from the Alabama Board of Examiners of Landscape Architects. Section 34-17-4 allows a company to use the title only if a designated licensed officer, member or partner is responsible.
Yes. Section 34-17-27 exempts the practice of any nurseryman, general or landscape contractor from the landscape architecture act, and says that practice includes design, planning, location and arrangements of plantings or other ornamental features. You may design and build. You may not use the protected title or seal drawings filed for public record.
Section 2-28-11 makes soliciting the work through advertising without a permit a misdemeanor, with a fine of not less than $25 and not more than $500 and possible imprisonment up to six months. A court may also issue an injunction without bond. The license application warns of civil penalties up to $3,000.
Rule 80-10-9-.13 requires all vehicles and mobile equipment used while soliciting or performing professional service work to carry the permittee's name in letters not less than three inches on a contrasting background. If you also hold plumbing certification, Section 34-37-6 requires the registered business name on two sides, minimum two inch lettering.
The State of Alabama Plumbers and Gas Fitters Examining Board. Section 34-37-1 defines plumbing to include pipes and apparatus necessary for supplying water, plus backflow prevention devices and water distribution systems on private property. Section 34-37-6 bars contracting for or conveying the impression of plumbing certification without a current certificate.
It can. The Alabama Licensing Board for General Contractors lists Landscaping and Irrigation as specialty classifications on its prime application and requires three completed prior projects for each. A prime application costs $300 with a PSI business and law exam, a subcontractor application costs $150, and applicants need $10,000 net worth and working capital.
Through the Department of Agriculture and Industries Pesticide Applicator Search, which allows searching by name, county, certification expiration date or permit number and returns license type, permit number and expiration date. The landscape architects board runs its own licensee search, and the general contractors board publishes a license roster.
The board requires 16 hours of continuing education completed within the previous renewal period, with a minimum of 8 hours related to the health, safety and welfare of the public. Missing the health, safety and welfare portion expires the license effective December 31. Renewals are due by January 31.
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