Minnesota · Landscaping licensing · official-source guide
The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry licenses no landscaper or landscaping contractor, so landscaping is not a licensed trade at state level. What binds you instead is the residential contractor license once you contract with a homeowner for more than one special skill, construction contractor registration, the plumbing license for irrigation, and a Department of Agriculture pesticide applicator license.
State-level license
No — see local details
Public lookup
Verify a licenseVerified against agency sources on 2026-10-12. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
Minnesota has no state license called landscaper or landscaping contractor. The Department of Labor and Industry publishes who needs a residential contractor license, and the trigger is contracting directly with an owner of residential real estate of one to four units to provide work in more than one special skill. The department defines special skill as one of eight categories, and the statute lists the same eight: excavation, masonry and concrete, carpentry, interior finishing, exterior finishing, drywall and plaster, residential roofing, and general installation specialties. Planting, sod, seeding, mulch, bed edging, pruning and lawn maintenance appear in none of those eight. A crew that plants, mulches and prunes therefore sits outside the residential contractor license entirely. The department also states plainly that specialty contractors who provide only one special skill are not required to hold a state license, with residential roofers the single exception. That is the honest answer when a homeowner asks for your state license number for planting work. The licensing authority here is the state, not the county. The department administers contractor licensing for all of Minnesota from St. Paul, and local governments do not issue a substitute landscaping license. What follows is the set of credentials that do attach to real landscaping scopes once the work moves past plants and into grading, walls, water and chemicals.
Sourcesdli.mn.gov 1revisor.mn.gov 2
Read the eight special skill categories against a real design-build bid and the picture changes. Excavation includes excavation, trenching, grading and site grading. Masonry and concrete includes slabs and poured-in-place footings, masonry walls, masonry veneer, poured walls, drain systems, and water resistance and waterproofing. General installation specialties includes pools, spas and hot tubs, and asphalt paving and seal coating. A landscaper who regrades a back yard and then builds a block retaining wall has touched two categories. A landscaper who sets a poured patio slab and also installs a hot tub has touched two. Either one is contracting with the homeowner for more than one special skill, which is exactly what the Department of Labor and Industry says requires a residential building contractor or residential remodeler license. The statute reaches the same result through its definition of specialty contractor, meaning a person who contracts to build or improve residential real estate by providing only one special skill. Provide two and you are no longer a specialty contractor. This is the single most common licensing mistake in Minnesota landscaping. The plants never trigger the license. The grading, the walls, the footings, the paving and the spa do. Price the license into any bid where the scope crosses two categories, and keep the one-skill jobs clearly one skill if you intend to stay unlicensed.
Sourcesdli.mn.gov 1revisor.mn.gov 2
The Department of Labor and Industry issues a residential building contractor license, a residential remodeler license and a residential roofer license. A residential remodeler may only work on existing structures and cannot build new homes or detached garages. A residential building contractor may do everything a remodeler may do and may also build new structures. For a landscaping company the practical split is simple. If your hardscape work is attached to existing homes, the remodeler license covers it. If you also build new garages, pool houses or other new structures as part of a site package, you need the building contractor license. The statute adds that a person who meets the definition of a residential building contractor must be licensed as one, a residential remodeler must hold either a remodeler or a building contractor license, and a residential roofer must hold a roofer, remodeler or building contractor license. The statute also permits a specialty contractor who provides only one special skill to be licensed voluntarily as a residential building contractor or remodeler, which some single-skill landscaping firms choose so they can bid wider scopes without re-papering. An owner of residential real estate who builds or improves homes for resale or speculation must also be licensed, so a landscaper who flips lots is caught by the same rule. Acting as any of these for compensation without the license is prohibited.
Minnesota licenses the company and tests a person. Each entity must name a qualifying person who is an owner, officer, member, partner, chief manager or managing employee, who is actively engaged in the business on the applicant's behalf if they are a managing employee, and who passes a written examination administered by the Department of Labor and Industry. A qualifying person cannot serve two companies unless there is at least 25 percent common ownership between them, a point the statute repeats. The examination must cover appropriate knowledge of technical terms, reference materials and code books, plus the general principles of business management and other pertinent state laws. Once the exam is passed the individual receives a Q number, which is a registration rather than a license and exists to track continuing education. The prefix tells you the type: QB for qualifying builder, QC for qualifying remodeler, QR for qualifying roofer, followed by six digits. The Q registration lasts two years from the exam date and must be renewed every two years. Renewal requires 14 hours of department-approved continuing education, of which at least one hour must relate to the Energy Code and at least one hour must relate to business management strategies. The qualifying person's expiration date will usually not match the company license expiration date, so a landscaping owner running both has two calendars to watch.
Sourcesdli.mn.gov 1revisor.mn.gov 2
The base residential contractor license fee is $180. On top of that the Department of Labor and Industry collects a Contractor Recovery Fund assessment scaled to gross annual receipts: $320 if receipts are under $1 million, $420 if receipts are between $1 and 5 million, and $520 if receipts are over $5 million. A landscaping firm in its first licensed year therefore budgets $500 for the base fee plus the lowest recovery fund tier. The recovery fund is not a tax with nothing behind it. The department describes it as the fund homeowners claim against when a licensed company goes out of business, goes bankrupt or is otherwise unable to finish a project and the homeowner is left with an out-of-pocket loss. That is worth saying out loud in a sales conversation, because an unlicensed competitor bidding the same wall gives the homeowner no such backstop. Applications and renewals run through iMS, the department's online application and renewal system, and the statute requires the application to be submitted under oath on a form the commissioner prescribes. The application must identify the type of license requested, name and address of the qualifying person if that is not the applicant, and the street address and telephone number where the business is physically located. A post office box does not satisfy the address requirement.
Three attachments stop more Minnesota contractor applications than the exam does. First, public liability insurance. The Department of Labor and Industry will not approve the license without current policy information, the policy must cover premises, operations and products and completed operations, and the minimum coverage is $100,000 per occurrence, $300,000 aggregate, and $25,000 in property damage coverage. The certificate must be produced and signed by a licensed insurance agent, the department must be listed as a certificate holder, and the policy must be written by an insurer licensed to sell insurance in Minnesota. Second, workers compensation. Proof must be provided on a department-approved form and uploaded during the online application. Third, the business filing. The business must be properly filed with the Minnesota Secretary of State, which is required for every structure except a sole proprietorship or partnership whose business name contains the full legal names of the individuals operating it. The business name must appear on the insurance certificate exactly as it appears on the Secretary of State filing, and you may only do business under that exact name unless you file an assumed name and show the department evidence of the filing. A license cannot be renewed while the Secretary of State filing is inactive. The statute requires the workers compensation certificate, the unemployment insurance account number and the certificate of liability insurance in the application itself.
Sourcesdli.mn.gov 1revisor.mn.gov 2
The Department of Labor and Industry lists the exemptions in plain terms, and several of them fit landscaping companies. Subcontractors who do not contract with the homeowner do not need the contractor license, but they must register through the Construction Contractor Registration Program. Commercial contractors do not need it either, and they must register through the same program. Employees of a licensed contractor are exempt. Contractors working on residential buildings with more than four units are exempt. Material suppliers that do not install or attach what they sell are exempt, which covers a nursery that sells trees but does not plant them. Owners doing work on their own property are exempt unless they are improving property they own for resale or speculation. Architects and engineers working within the scope of their practice are exempt. Landlords performing work other than plumbing or electrical on their own residential rental units are exempt. The one that most often applies to a small landscaping startup is the gross receipts exemption: a residential building contractor whose gross annual receipts from residential activities are less than $15,000 and who holds a Certificate of Exemption. The department defines gross annual receipts as the total derived from residential contracting or remodeling activities regardless of where performed, and it must not be reduced by cost of goods sold, expenses, losses or any other amount. Cross $15,000 and the exemption ends.
Sourcesdli.mn.gov
If you are not licensed, Minnesota still wants you in a database. Statute 326B.701 requires any person who provides or performs building construction or improvement services in Minnesota to register with the commissioner before doing the work, and the statute defines those services to include public or private sector commercial or residential building construction or improvement services. The Department of Labor and Industry describes the program as being for those who provide one specialty skill for residential projects and for all commercial projects, if they do not hold a residential contractor license. A single-skill landscaper and a commercial site landscaper both land here. The registration is not a license and the statute says so directly: the registration requirements are not a substitute for and do not relieve a person from complying with any other law requiring a license, registration or certification. The exemptions include anyone already holding a current license, certificate or registration under chapter 299M or 326B, anyone who has given a bond to the state under section 326B.197 or 326B.46, employees of the person performing the work, architects and professional engineers in professional practice, and volunteers. The department also warns that if a license is required you must not register instead. Applications run through iMS without an account, and the department says complete applications may take two to three business days and up to 30 days during peak renewal periods from October to December in odd numbered years.
Sourcesrevisor.mn.gov 1dli.mn.gov 2
This is the one place where Minnesota regulates the design side of your business, and it regulates the title rather than the work. Statute 326.02 makes licensure mandatory for any person practicing or offering to practice landscape architecture, and it makes it unlawful to use in connection with your name, or otherwise assume, use or advertise, any title or description tending to convey the impression that you are a landscape architect unless you are licensed. The licensing body is the Board of Architecture, Engineering, Land Surveying, Landscape Architecture, Geoscience, and Interior Design. The statute defines the practice as professional service in connection with the development of land areas where the dominant purpose is the preservation, enhancement or determination of proper land uses, natural land features, ground cover and planting, naturalistic and aesthetic values, the settings, approaches or environment for structures, and the consideration of inherent problems of the land relating to erosion, wear and tear, blight and hazards. Then it carves landscapers out. Nothing in those sections excludes nursery operators or other small business people from the preparation of landscape plans appropriate to the normal operation of their business. A registered architect or professional engineer may also do landscape planning and designing. So a Minnesota landscaping company may draw and sell plans for its own installation work. What it may not do is call the person who drew them a landscape architect.
If you do hold the license, Minnesota attaches specific mechanics to it. The board issues the license on application and payment of a fee set by board rule, and a separate fee is paid for each profession licensed. A licensee may obtain a seal bearing their name and the legend licensed landscape architect, and plans, specifications, plats, reports and other documents prepared by the licensee may be stamped with that seal during the life of the license. Using the stamp after the license has expired, been revoked or been suspended is unlawful unless the license has been renewed or reissued. Each plan, drawing, specification, plat, report or other document prepared by a licensed landscape architect must bear the signature of the person who prepared it. A corporation, partnership or other firm may engage in landscape architecture in Minnesota provided the person in responsible charge of that work is licensed, which is how a design-build company structures the work legally. The board may revoke or suspend the license for fraud or deceit in obtaining it, for attaching the seal or signature to a document not prepared by the licensee or under their direct supervision, or for gross negligence, incompetency or misconduct. Retired licensees may keep using the designation if it is preceded by the word retired and the license was not revoked. Out-of-state applicants may be asked for a certificate from the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards.
Sourcesrevisor.mn.gov 1revisor.mn.gov 2revisor.mn.gov 3revisor.mn.gov 4revisor.mn.gov 5
Lawn irrigation is where a landscaping company most often needs a credential it does not have. Minnesota requires a plumbing license to work at the business of a master plumber, restricted master plumber, journeyworker plumber or restricted journeyworker plumber, and it requires that no person engage in the business of planning, superintending or installing plumbing unless a licensed master plumber is in place at all times. The statute does carve out one piece that matters on a site: a license is not required for individuals performing building sewer or water service installation who have completed pipe laying training as prescribed by the commissioner. The bond and insurance requirements apply to each person who performs or offers to perform plumbing work in Minnesota, including a person who offers to perform or performs sewer or water service installation without a contractor license. The bond must be given and maintained to the state in the penal sum of at least $25,000 for all plumbing work entered into within the state. Public liability insurance, including products liability, must carry limits of at least $50,000 per person and $100,000 per occurrence, plus property damage insurance with limits of at least $10,000, written by an insurer licensed in Minnesota, with a certificate kept on file with the commissioner. Plan the sprinkler scope around a licensed plumbing contractor or subcontract it. The bond and insurance figures are statutory minimums, not quotes.
Sourcesrevisor.mn.gov
Irrigation ties into the potable water system, which is why Minnesota regulates the device that keeps lawn water from flowing back into the house. Statute 326B.437 states that no person may perform or offer to perform the installation, maintenance, repair, replacement or rebuilding of reduced pressure zone backflow prevention assemblies unless the person obtains a plumbing contractor license. A separate individual credential sits on top of that. An individual may not engage in the testing, maintenance, repair or rebuilding of those assemblies as regulated by the Plumbing Code unless certified by the commissioner as a backflow prevention rebuilder, and may not engage in testing unless they hold a rebuilder certificate or are certified as a backflow prevention tester. The definitions confirm the split: a backflow prevention rebuilder is qualified by training prescribed by the Plumbing Board and holds a master or journeyworker plumber license, while a backflow prevention tester is qualified by training prescribed by the Plumbing Board for testing. Certificates are issued for an initial period of two years and must be renewed every two years for as long as the holder installs, maintains, repairs, rebuilds or tests those assemblies, and the statute treats an initial or renewed certificate as an entry level license for fee purposes. The department recognizes certification programs of a minimum of 16 contact hours that include passage of an examination with a practical and a written component.
Spray anything for money in Minnesota and the Department of Agriculture is your regulator. A person may not apply a pesticide for hire without a commercial applicator license for the appropriate use categories or a structural pest control license, and the licensee must be 18 years of age or older. The department describes commercial applicator licenses as covering anyone who applies any pesticide for hire, and for hire means you charge or invoice for the service. The category a landscaping company needs is category E, turf and ornamentals, which the department defines as pesticides to non-agricultural areas or for ornamental propagation including lawns, parks, athletic fields, golf courses, nurseries and greenhouses. Every licensed applicator also takes category A, core. Fertilizer applications are licensed separately. The initial or renewal application fee is a nonrefundable $50, a duplicate license is $10, and a renewal application received after March 1 of the license year carries a penalty fee of 50 percent of the application fee. The license expires on December 31 of the year it is issued and is not transferable. The commissioner prescribes a closed-book monitored examination, and renewal may require attendance at an approved recertification workshop once per year, once every two years or once every three years depending on category. An applicator who misses a required workshop may be required to pass a reexamination instead.
Two obligations follow the applicator license onto the job. The first is money. The commissioner may suspend or revoke a commercial applicator license if the applicator fails to provide proof of financial responsibility on request, and financial responsibility may be shown by proof of net assets equal to or greater than $50,000, or by a performance bond or insurance of the kind and amount the commissioner determines. The bond or insurance must cover at least the term of the license, the insurer must notify the commissioner ten days before cancellation or termination, and the commissioner must immediately suspend the license of an applicator who fails to maintain it. The second is the sign on the lawn. Minnesota lets statutory and home rule charter cities adopt an ordinance carrying the warning requirements in statute 18B.09, and under that ordinance all commercial or noncommercial applicators who apply pesticides to turf areas must post or affix warning signs on the property. Signs must project at least 18 inches above the top of the grass line, be rain-resistant for at least a 48-hour period and remain in place up to 48 hours from initial application. The sign carries the name of the business applying the pesticide and the words that the area was chemically treated with a safe entry date, in contrasting colors and capitalized letters measuring at least one-half inch. On a lawn the sign goes between two and five feet from the sidewalk or street.
Three more Department of Agriculture obligations attach to ordinary landscaping scopes. Tree work first. The department maintains a Tree Care Registry under the Plant Protection and Export Certification Law at chapter 18G.07, and it says all companies and persons that provide tree care or tree trimming services, or that remove trees, limbs, branches, brush or shrubs for hire, must register, including private, public and governmental entities. One registration covers a company or franchise, branch locations are listed on it, registration costs $25 plus a $5 processing surcharge, and it runs through December 31 of the current year. The department warns that not registering may subject you to penalty, and it also tells consumers the registry does not verify insurance, bonding or tree care knowledge. Plant sales second. Anyone selling nursery stock in Minnesota must hold a valid Minnesota Live Plant Dealer Nursery Certificate, sell only certified nursery stock and provide documentation of certification. The renewal fee combines a $50 base certificate fee per sales location with a growing fee of $100 plus $10 per growing acre up to 200 acres if you grow nursery stock, plus a fee based on gross annual purchases of finished stock you resell. Advertising third. Under statute 18H.14 you may not label or advertise a plant as beneficial to pollinators if it was treated with a detectable level of a qualifying systemic insecticide, and the department counts any claim about attracting butterflies or other pollinators as advertising.
Minnesota gives you several public records a homeowner can pull before signing. The Department of Labor and Industry runs a license and registration lookup where anyone can check licenses, bonds, certifications and registrations, including continuing education completion, work experience and plumbing bond holders, through iMS without creating an account. The construction contractor registration side publishes a download file of every registration issued by the Construction Codes and Licensing Division, updated nightly, where an active registration shows a status of Issued. The Department of Agriculture runs its own online licensing system where a license holder can be searched, which is how a homeowner confirms a commercial applicator license or a Tree Care Registry entry. Display rules are specific rather than general. A commercial applicator license must be prominently displayed to the public in the applicator's place of business, and the licensee must carry a valid license identification card and display it on demand by an authorized representative of the commissioner or a law enforcement officer. A licensed landscape architect may stamp documents only while the license is live, and the seal carries the legend licensed landscape architect. On the contractor side, the Department of Labor and Industry requires written notice of changes in control, ownership, officers, personal name, business name, license name or qualifying person within 15 days. Use the lookup links in your own sales material. A homeowner who can verify you in 30 seconds stops shopping.
Sourcesdli.mn.gov 1dli.mn.gov 2mda.state.mn.us 3revisor.mn.gov 4revisor.mn.gov 5revisor.mn.gov 6
These are common details other guides publish about Minnesota, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
No. The Department of Labor and Industry licenses residential contractors by special skill category, and planting, sod, seeding and mulch are not among the eight categories. A planting-only crew needs no state contractor license, though it still needs construction contractor registration if it provides a specialty skill on residential work or works commercial projects.
When you contract directly with a homeowner of a one to four unit property for more than one special skill. Regrading a yard is excavation. A block retaining wall or a poured patio slab is masonry and concrete. Doing both on one contract means you need a residential building contractor or residential remodeler license.
A residential remodeler may only work on existing structures and cannot build new homes or detached garages. A residential building contractor may do everything a remodeler may do and may also build new structures. A landscaping firm that also builds new pool houses or garages needs the building contractor version.
Only if that person is licensed by the Board of Architecture, Engineering, Land Surveying, Landscape Architecture, Geoscience, and Interior Design. Statute 326.02 makes it unlawful to use any title or description tending to convey the impression that a person is a landscape architect without the license. Designer and landscape designer are not restricted.
Yes, within limits. Statute 326.02 says nothing in the licensing sections excludes nursery operators or other small business people from preparing landscape plans appropriate to the normal operation of their business. You may draw and sell plans for your own installation work. You may not market the preparer as a landscape architect.
Irrigation that ties to the potable water system is plumbing work. No person may engage in the business of planning, superintending or installing plumbing unless a licensed master plumber is in place at all times, and installing or repairing a reduced pressure zone backflow assembly requires a plumbing contractor license. Subcontract it to a licensed plumbing contractor.
Statute 326B.46 requires a bond to the state in the penal sum of at least $25,000 for all plumbing work entered into within Minnesota. It also requires public liability insurance, including products liability, of at least $50,000 per person and $100,000 per occurrence, plus property damage insurance of at least $10,000, from an insurer licensed in Minnesota.
Yes. A person may not apply a pesticide for hire without a commercial applicator license for the appropriate categories. Landscaping firms take category A, core, plus category E, turf and ornamentals, which covers lawns, parks, athletic fields, golf courses, nurseries and greenhouses. Fertilizer application is licensed separately by the Department of Agriculture.
The initial or renewal application fee is a nonrefundable $50 and a duplicate license is $10. The license expires December 31 of the year it is issued and is not transferable. A renewal application received after March 1 of the license year carries a penalty fee equal to 50 percent of the application fee.
In any Minnesota city that adopted the ordinance authorized by statute 18B.09, yes. Signs must project at least 18 inches above the grass line, stay rain-resistant for at least 48 hours, remain up to 48 hours after application, name the business applying the pesticide, and sit between two and five feet from the sidewalk or street.
Yes. The Department of Agriculture Tree Care Registry under chapter 18G.07 covers all companies and persons providing tree care or tree trimming services, or removing trees, limbs, branches, brush or shrubs for hire. Registration costs $25 plus a $5 processing surcharge and runs through December 31. Minneapolis separately licenses tree servicing.
The Department of Labor and Industry requires public liability coverage of $100,000 per occurrence, $300,000 aggregate and $25,000 property damage, covering premises, operations and products and completed operations, from an insurer licensed in Minnesota and listing the department as a certificate holder. Proof of workers compensation compliance must be filed on a department-approved form.
We can review the local market, your current search visibility, and paid-search fit before recommending any marketing work.