Kansas · Landscaping licensing · official-source guide
Kansas licenses no landscaping contractor. The Kansas State Board of Technical Professions licenses landscape architects and protects that title, while the Kansas Department of Agriculture issues the pesticide business license any firm needs before it advertises or applies pesticides on another person's property. Wichita and Sedgwick County license lawn irrigation separately through MABCD.
State-level license
No — see local details
Public lookup
Not published
Verified against agency sources on 2026-10-12. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
Kansas has no state license for a landscaping contractor. There is no state registration for landscape installation, sod, planting, retaining walls, patios or outdoor living space construction. Three other bodies of Kansas law reach the work instead, and each one attaches to a different part of what a crew does. The first is the technical professions act. K.S.A. 74-7001 makes it unlawful to practice or offer to practice a technical profession in Kansas, or to use the title of a licensed practitioner, without a license from the state board of technical professions or a certificate of authorization. Landscape architecture is one of those technical professions, and K.S.A. 74-7003 defines it broadly enough to touch design work many Kansas landscapers sell. The second is the Kansas pesticide law. K.S.A. 2-2440 makes it unlawful for a pesticide business without a license to advertise, offer for sale, sell or perform any pest control service on the property of another, or to apply a pesticide to the property of another. Fertilizing with a weed control product and spraying for grubs both land inside that sentence. The third is the city and county layer. Sedgwick County licenses lawn irrigation as a named trade. Johnson County licenses the structures a hardscape crew builds. So the right question in Kansas is not whether you need a state landscaping license. It is which of these three pieces your scope of work crosses, and in which county you are standing when it does.
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K.S.A. 74-7003 contains the definition that matters most to a Kansas landscape company, because it is wider than most contractors expect. The practice of landscape architecture means consultation, planning, designing or responsible supervision in connection with the development of land areas for preservation and enhancement. The statute then lists the deliverables by name. It includes preparation, review and analysis of master plans for land use and development. It includes production of overall site development and land enhancement plans, grading and drainage plans, irrigation plans, planting plans and construction details. It includes specifications, cost analysis and reports for land development. It includes the designing of land forms and non-habitable structures for aesthetic and functional purposes, such as pools, walls and structures for outdoor living spaces, for public and private use. It also covers determination of proper land use as it pertains to natural features, ground cover, the use, nomenclature and arrangement of plant material adapted to soils and climate, settings and approaches to structures, soil conservation and erosion control. Read that list against a typical Kansas design and build proposal. A grading and drainage plan, an irrigation plan, a pergola and seat wall detail, and a planting schedule are all named in the statute. The same section excludes services that fall within the definitions of architecture, professional engineering, professional geology and professional surveying, except for the common technical services that any licensee may perform. That is the line Kansas draws, and it is drawn around the drawings, not around the shovel.
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Kansas wrote an exemption directly into the act, and it is the reason most landscaping firms in the state operate without a licensed landscape architect on staff. K.S.A. 74-7032 says the licensure and certificate of authorization requirements shall not be construed to prevent or affect the right of any individual to engage in the occupation of growing and marketing nursery stock, to use the title nurseryman, landscape nurseryman or gardener, or to plan or plant that individual's own property. The next subsection goes further. It preserves the right of nurserymen to engage in preparing and executing planting plans. So a Kansas nurseryman can draw a planting plan and install it. The statute also protects site development planning performed in accordance with the practice of architecture, and it allows a licensed professional engineer to perform the services described in the landscape architecture definition, with two carve outs. An engineer may not prepare planting plans, and an engineer may not make the determination of proper land use as it pertains to natural features, ground cover, and the use, nomenclature and arrangement of plant material adapted to soils and climate. Notice what K.S.A. 74-7032 does not exempt. It does not exempt the titles the board controls. It protects nurseryman, landscape nurseryman and gardener. It does not hand you the word architect. The practical reading for a Kansas contractor is that the planting side of the work is open, the titles are not, and the heavier site engineering sits with a licensee.
If you want the state license rather than the exemption, K.S.A. 74-7020 sets out the two routes. The first is graduation from a four year college or university program that is adequate in its preparation of students for the practice of landscape architecture, plus a minimum of four years of experience in landscape architectural work of a character satisfactory to the board, as defined by the board's rules and regulations. The second is graduation from a five year program that is adequate in its preparation of students, plus a minimum of three years of experience of the same character. Either route then requires the satisfactory passage of an examination utilized by the board. The statute does not name the examination, so the board's rules and its published application control which exam you sit and in what order. On money, K.S.A. 74-7009 sets ceilings rather than prices. For an original license issued on the basis of an examination given by the board, the application fee is not more than $200, plus an amount equal to the cost of any examination the board administers directly. The statute also directs the board, on or before November 15 of each year, to determine what it needs to administer the act for the coming calendar year and to fix its fees at that amount. So the ceiling is statutory and the actual number is set annually, which is why you confirm the current figure with the board before you write the check.
Kansas regulates the company as well as the individual. K.S.A. 74-7036 says a business entity organized for the practice of one or more of the technical professions must obtain a certificate of authorization before doing business in the state. Three conditions apply. One or more principals must be designated as being in responsible charge for the activities and decisions relating to the practice of that profession, must be licensed by the board to practice it, and must be a regular employee of and active participant in the business entity. Every person engaged in the practice must be licensed, or exempt from licensure under K.S.A. 74-7031 through 74-7035, or exempt from examination under the reciprocity section. And each separate office or place of business the entity establishes in Kansas must have a licensed professional regularly supervising the work of that office and holding responsible charge of each technical professional practicing there. That office requirement does not apply to offices established to provide construction administration services only. The fee ceilings sit in K.S.A. 74-7009. A certificate of authorization is not more than $300, and the biennial renewal of a certificate of authorization is not more than $300. For a Kansas landscaping company, the question is whether your entity is organized for the practice of landscape architecture. If you are selling planting plans as a nurseryman under K.S.A. 74-7032, that is a different posture than selling stamped site development and grading plans under the firm's name.
Kansas licenses and certificates of authorization under this act renew on a two year cycle. K.S.A. 74-7025 requires the board's executive director to notify every licensee and certificate holder at least 30 days before expiration, stating the expiration date and the fee required for renewal for two years. The same section is blunt about the gap. A licensee shall not practice any technical profession after the expiration date until the license or certificate has been renewed or reinstated. A license not renewed by the expiration date may still be renewed within 60 days by paying the renewal fee plus a late fee. Anything not renewed within 60 days after expiration is cancelled, and getting it back then means a reinstatement application and fee for good cause shown. Licensees must also notify the board in writing of any address change within 30 days. On continuing education, the statute is permissive rather than prescriptive. The board may require proof of compliance with continuing education requirements established by its rules and regulations as a condition of renewal, so the hour count lives in the regulations rather than the statute. Reciprocity runs through K.S.A. 74-7024. A person holding a current license from the proper authority in another state may be exempted from examination in Kansas if the requirements under which that license was issued are of a standard accepted by the board and the person's record fully meets Kansas requirements in all other respects. K.S.A. 74-7009 caps that application fee at not more than $500.
This is the Kansas state license that catches landscaping companies by surprise. K.S.A. 2-2440 makes it unlawful for a pesticide business that has not been issued a pesticide business license to advertise, offer for sale, sell or perform any service for the control of a pest on the property of another, or to apply a pesticide to the property of another in Kansas. The word advertise sits first in that list. It is also unlawful to perform pest control or apply pesticides on another person's premises under any commission, division of receipts or subcontracting arrangement with a licensed pesticide business, so taking the spray work as a sub does not transfer the licensee's cover to you. The license is issued per category, and the application fee is $140 per category in which the licensee applies, dropping to $112 per category on and after July 1, 2028. An additional fee of $15 is paid for each uncertified individual the applicant employs to apply pesticides, dropping to $10 on and after July 1, 2028. The license expires at the end of the calendar year for which it is issued. Three exemptions apply: state or federal personnel doing pesticide use research, veterinarians and physicians using pesticides as part of their professional services, and any person or that person's employee applying pesticides on premises owned, leased or operated by that person. K.S.A. 2-2480 then makes the pesticide law uniform statewide and bars local authorities from adding to it, so no Kansas city can write you a second spray license.
The business license covers the company. The individual applying restricted use pesticides needs a separate certificate. K.S.A. 2-2441a says no individual may use any restricted use pesticide without a commercial applicator's certificate from the secretary, with narrow exceptions. One of those exceptions matters to crew staffing: employees of a pesticide business licensee who use only nonaerial methods of application and who work only under the supervision of a certified commercial applicator. The certificate is limited to the categories or subcategories for which the applicant qualified by examination, and the statute says it expires at the end of the second calendar year after the year of issue. K.S.A. 2-2444a lists the categories of qualification. The two a landscaping company reads first are ornamental and turf pest control and right-of-way pest control. The full list also includes agricultural, forest, aquatic, seed treatment, industrial, institutional, structural and health related, public health, regulatory, demonstration and research, sodium cyanide predator control, aerial pest control and soil fumigation. The secretary has authority to subdivide any category to account for the special needs or business practices of the state, which is how the working subcategories get created. Renewal runs through K.S.A. 2-2446. A commercial applicator may renew by paying the fees, passing the examinations and filing the renewal form. In lieu of examination, the secretary may accept attendance and satisfactory completion of an approved training course, and recertification by training carries a fee of $50 per category unless the secretary sets a different fee not exceeding $50.
Kansas will not issue a pesticide business license until the applicant proves financial responsibility, and K.S.A. 2-2448 gives two ways to do it. The first is a surety bond in an amount not less than $6,000 per year. The bond must be executed by a corporate surety on a form approved by the secretary, must state its effective and expiration dates, must name the applicant as principal, and must run to the state of Kansas, conditioned on compliance by the principal and the principal's officers, agents, representatives and employees. The second is a certificate of liability insurance executed by an insurance company authorized to do business in Kansas. That policy must provide coverage of not less than $25,000 for bodily injury liability for each occurrence and not less than $5,000 for property damage liability for each occurrence. Aerial applicators carry more. The statute also builds in a tripwire. The insurer must notify the secretary in writing of any expiration, reduction or cancellation of the liability insurance no later than 10 days before it takes effect, and on expiration, reduction or cancellation the secretary shall suspend the business license until the requirement is met for the current license period. One advertising rule hides in the same section. It is unlawful for a licensed person to use the words bond or bonded in advertising or publicizing pesticide application operations unless the bond is a performance bond and both the designation and the amount are specified.
Kansas puts the training duty on the licensed business, not on the worker, and it names the pest types that pull a landscaping company in. K.S.A. 2-2440a says a pesticide business licensee applying pesticides for the control of wood destroying pests, structural pests, ornamental pests, turf pests or interior landscape pests must ensure that registered pest control technicians who handle, mix or apply pesticides have been trained as the act provides. Ornamental, turf and interior landscape pests are the everyday work of a landscape maintenance crew. The same section sets the clock. The licensee must notify the secretary within 30 days following the date of employment of a registered pest control technician or a person to be trained as one. The licensee must also ensure that all persons it employs who apply pesticides and who are not registered technicians meet the act's requirements within 90 days after they are employed. Certified commercial applicators employed by the business are outside that requirement. The fee side connects back to K.S.A. 2-2440. An uncertified individual employed for more than 10 days in a 30 day period, or for five consecutive days, must be reported to the secretary within 30 days of hiring, with the per employee fee paid at that time. Technician registrations renew for a succeeding one year period under K.S.A. 2-2446, which is a shorter cycle than the applicator certificate and easy to let lapse during a busy Kansas spring.
Two more Kansas permits sit beside the pesticide license, and both are easy for a landscaping company to trip over. The first is the live plant dealer license. K.S.A. 2-2120 says every live plant dealer, before advertising for sale, selling, offering for sale or delivering any live plants in Kansas, must get a live plant dealer's license from the secretary for each location from which it does business as a live plant dealer, except for temporary locations registered with the secretary. Again the statute puts advertising first. The application fee is fixed by rules and regulations but cannot exceed $100, excluding the plant pest emergency fee. A dealer who does not export live plants from the state, has annual gross receipts under $10,000 and has only one permanent location may apply for a reduced fee, which cannot exceed $50. Licenses expire on January 31 following the date of issue. Renewing on or after that date adds a $25 late fee, and renewing after the following March 1 makes that late fee $50. A person operating as a special event live plant dealer registers instead of licensing. The second permit is chemigation. K.S.A. 2-3304 requires any user of the chemigation process to register and obtain a chemigation user's permit before using the process. The application fee is $75 plus $15 for each additional point of diversion, dropping to $55 plus $10 on and after July 1, 2028, and the permit is renewed each year with a report on the previous year's use.
The Wichita metro is where a Kansas landscaping company meets a licensing requirement aimed squarely at irrigation. The Metropolitan Area Building and Construction Department publishes its contractor licensing requirements for unincorporated Sedgwick County, the City of Wichita and the small cities in its jurisdiction. Its trade contractor list names Lawn Irrigation alongside Drain Cleaner, Drain Layer, Electrical, Elevator, Fire Suppression, Gas Fitter, Handicap Accessibility, Mechanical, Plumbing, Refrigeration, Sheet Metal, Solid Fuel and Mobile Home Installer. Trade contractor licenses expire December 31 every odd year. General contractor licenses, which is the family that covers Class A, B, C and D plus Swimming Pool, Roofing and Siding, Wrecking, Solar and others, expire December 31 every even year. The application package is specific. The qualifying person must submit test results from the Kansas Standard ICC exam with a score of 75 percent or better, or an ICC test release form if the exam was taken outside Kansas. The company files a certificate of liability insurance showing at least $300,000 in general liability with MABCD named as certificate holder, a workers compensation certificate or a signed and notarized waiver, an auto certificate of insurance or a notarized waiver, and a certificate of good standing from the Kansas Secretary of State unless it is a sole proprietor. MABCD states plainly that it does not reciprocate with other jurisdictions. Its fee schedule lists a lawn sprinkler test fee of $100 and a homeowners test fee of $50, with the license fees themselves in a separate table.
Johnson County runs a regional Contractor Licensing division whose stated purpose is making sure those undertaking the construction, alteration, repair or demolition of structures are qualified. Read its license classes and the gap is obvious. There is Class A general contractor, Class B building contractor, Class C residential contractor, Class DE electrical, Class DF and DFA fire protection, Class DM mechanical, Class DP plumbing, Class DR roofing, Class DS swimming pool and Class DW wood framing. No class covers landscaping, planting, sod, irrigation or hardscape. What that means in practice is that the planting and grading side of your job is outside the program, while specific built elements are inside it. Class DS entitles the holder to install, service, construct and repair swimming pools, spas and hot tubs. Class DW covers wood framing and rough carpentry including exterior staircases, wood decks and associated guard rails. Class C covers construction, remodeling, repair and demolition of single family or duplex residences and buildings accessory to them. So the pergola, the deck and the pool in your outdoor living package can each pull a Johnson County license class that the planting plan does not. The money is published. The application fee for new licenses only is $100, the new license fee is $225 per license type, renewal is $225 per license type, and a renewal late fee of $75 per license type applies on February 1. A company name change is $25 and a license verification is $25. Licenses are valid for one year.
Kansas has no general rule forcing a landscaping company to print a license number on its advertising, because there is no state landscaping license to print. The moment pesticides enter the job, that changes. K.S.A. 2-2455 requires each pesticide business to present every customer a statement of services or contract that sets out the business name, address and license number of the pesticide business licensee, the customer's name and address, the pest or pests to be controlled, the pesticide used including quantity applied and total area treated, the concentration or rate where applicable, the date, location and start and end time of the application, the expiration date of any guarantees, and the signature and applicator certification number of the individual who performed the work and of the individual who supervised it where applicable. Wind direction and velocity go in where applicable, as does a note that the application was less than label rate. The statement goes to the customer in paper unless the customer agrees to electronic delivery. On vehicles, K.S.A. 2-2456 lets the secretary require that any car, truck or other vehicle used to apply pesticides or to transport application equipment or personnel be marked for identification in a prescribed location and manner, specifically for ornamental and turf pest control. K.S.A. 2-2120 bars advertising live plants for sale without a dealer license. K.S.A. 74-7029 makes it a crime to falsely advertise as a licensed practitioner or to assume any title or description intended to convey the impression that you are one. If you sell at the door, K.S.A. 50-640 adds the three business day cancellation notice.
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Both statutes that reach a Kansas landscaping business carry criminal exposure, and both use the same grade. Under K.S.A. 74-7029, it is a class A misdemeanor to practice, offer to practice or hold yourself out as entitled to practice any technical profession without a license or certificate of authorization. The same section makes it a class A misdemeanor to present or use another person's license, certificate or seal as your own, to falsely impersonate another practitioner, to give false or forged evidence to the board, to use a license that has expired or been suspended or revoked, to falsely advertise as a licensed practitioner or certificate holder, or to use in connection with your name any title or description intended to convey the impression that you are one. Violating any other provision of the act or any board regulation is also a class A misdemeanor. K.S.A. 74-7030 gives the board a civil route in parallel. If the board has reason to believe a person has engaged in or is about to engage in acts violating the act or its regulations, the board may apply to district court for civil enforcement without giving bond. The Kansas pesticide law mirrors this. K.S.A. 2-2461 makes failure to comply with any provision of the act or any authorized regulation a class A misdemeanor, and states that each separate violation constitutes a separate offense. District courts may restrain violations by injunction without any criminal proceeding and without bond. Losing your insurance also suspends the pesticide business license under K.S.A. 2-2448.
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Three obligations follow a Kansas landscaping company regardless of licensing. On sales tax, K.S.A. 79-3603 subsection p taxes the gross receipts received for the service of installing or applying tangible personal property, whether or not the property becomes part of real estate. The statute then carves out installing or applying in connection with the original construction of a building or facility, and the original construction, reconstruction, restoration, remodeling, renovation, repair or replacement of a residence. Original construction means the first or initial construction of a new building or facility. Those words decide whether a given Kansas install is taxable, so the exemption you claim should match the statutory language on the invoice. On workers compensation, K.S.A. 44-505 applies the act to all employments in Kansas except agricultural pursuits and except an employer whose total gross annual payroll for the preceding calendar year was not more than $20,000 for all employees and who reasonably estimates the same for the current year. Wages paid to family members are excluded from that payroll computation. On verification, K.S.A. 74-7010 requires the board's executive director to maintain a roster of the names and places of business of everyone licensed or holding a certificate of authorization, specifying the branch, with copies provided under the Kansas Open Records Act. Johnson County publishes a contractor portal where a homeowner can search by company, by person or by license class. For pesticide work, the customer is handed your license number on the statement of services.
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These are common details other guides publish about Kansas, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
No. Kansas issues no state landscaping contractor license. K.S.A. 74-7032 expressly preserves the right to grow and market nursery stock, to use the title nurseryman, landscape nurseryman or gardener, and for nurserymen to prepare and execute planting plans. Your licensing exposure comes from pesticides, from city and county trade licenses, and from the titles you use.
No. K.S.A. 74-7001 makes it unlawful to use the title of a licensed practitioner of a technical profession without a license from the state board of technical professions. K.S.A. 74-7029 makes it a class A misdemeanor to assume any title or description intended to convey the impression that you are a licensed practitioner. Nurseryman and gardener are the protected alternatives.
A pesticide business license. K.S.A. 2-2440 makes it unlawful for an unlicensed pesticide business to advertise, offer, sell or perform pest control on another person's property, or to apply a pesticide there. The application fee is $140 per category, falling to $112 per category on and after July 1, 2028, plus $15 for each uncertified applicator employed.
K.S.A. 2-2448 requires proof of financial responsibility before the license issues. Either a surety bond of not less than $6,000 per year executed by a corporate surety and running to the state of Kansas, or a certificate of liability insurance providing at least $25,000 bodily injury liability per occurrence and at least $5,000 property damage liability per occurrence.
In the Wichita area, yes. The Metropolitan Area Building and Construction Department lists Lawn Irrigation as a trade contractor license for unincorporated Sedgwick County, the City of Wichita and small cities in its jurisdiction. Those trade licenses expire December 31 every odd year. MABCD's fee schedule lists a $100 lawn sprinkler test fee and states that it does not reciprocate with other jurisdictions.
Not as landscaping. Johnson County Contractor Licensing issues Class A, B, C, DE, DF, DFA, DM, DP, DR, DS and DW licenses, aimed at construction, alteration, repair and demolition of structures. No class covers planting or irrigation. But a deck pulls Class DW wood framing, and a pool, spa or hot tub pulls Class DS, so hardscape packages can still require a license.
Johnson County publishes a $100 application fee for new licenses only and a $225 license fee per license type, so a single new license totals $325. Renewal is $225 per license type, with a $75 per type late fee applied on February 1. A company name change is $25 and a license verification is $25. Licenses are valid for one year.
K.S.A. 74-7020 offers two routes. Graduation from a four year landscape architecture program plus a minimum of four years of experience in landscape architectural work satisfactory to the board, or graduation from a five year program plus a minimum of three years of that experience. Either route then requires passing an examination utilized by the board.
Every two years. K.S.A. 74-7025 requires the board to notify licensees at least 30 days before expiration of the fee required for renewal for two years, and bars practice after the expiration date until renewal. A lapsed license can be renewed within 60 days with a late fee, and anything not renewed within 60 days is cancelled.
Possibly, without a new exam. K.S.A. 74-7024 lets the board exempt a current out of state licensee from examination if the requirements under which that license was issued meet a standard the board accepts and the person's record otherwise fully meets Kansas requirements. K.S.A. 74-7009 caps the reciprocity application fee at not more than $500. MABCD in Sedgwick County, by contrast, does not reciprocate.
If you sell live plants, K.S.A. 2-2120 requires a live plant dealer's license for each location before you advertise for sale, sell, offer for sale or deliver live plants in Kansas. The fee is set by regulation but cannot exceed $100, with a reduced fee not exceeding $50 for a single location dealer with annual gross receipts under $10,000. Licenses expire January 31.
K.S.A. 2-2455 requires a statement of services or contract carrying your business name, address and pesticide business license number, the customer's name and address, the pests, the pesticide with quantity and total area, the rate, the date, location and start and end time, any guarantee expiration, and the signature and applicator certification number of whoever applied and supervised the work.
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