SIC 0782 Lawn and Garden Services

SIC 0782

The lawn and garden services industry is comprised of establishments primarily engaged in performing a variety of landscape maintenance services. Companies that install artificial turf are included in SIC 1799: Special Trade Contractors, Not Elsewhere Classified.

NAICS CODE(S)

561730

Landscaping Services

This industry encompasses an abundance of firms that provide a wide range of services, including sod laying, lawn mowing, and seeding. Firms also may serve such niche markets as lawn mulching, cemetery maintenance, garden planting, fertilizing, lawn spraying and treating, highway center-strip maintenance, and athletic field and golf course turf installation. Lawn maintenance service, the largest segment of the lawn and garden industry, accounted for more than 36 percent of industry revenues from 2003 to 2005.

The lawn and garden services industry includes thousands of small, privately owned firms. For example, the California Landscape Contractors Association, based in Bakersfield, represented 2,500 companies that relied on temporary workers in 2005. Nationally, those firms with sales of less than $100,000 accounted for more than 37.0 percent of the industry in 2003. Firms with sales of less than $50,000 accounted for 18.7 percent, while those with sales between $50,000 and $99,999 accounted for 18.5 percent. Firms with sales between $100,000 and $199,999 accounted for 20.2 percent, those with sales between $200,000 and $499,999 garnered 19.4, those with sales between $500,000 and $999,999 secured 9.9 percent, and those with sale of $1 million or more accounted for 13.3 percent.

Grounds maintenance workers held about 1.5 million jobs in 2004. Approximately one-third of them were employed by companies providing landscaping services to residential and commercial customers. Almost 1 of every 4 grounds maintenance workers was self-employed, providing landscape maintenance directly to customers on a contract basis. Nearly one-quarter of U.S. households utilized professional lawn care services.

According to the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET), the United States has an estimated 20 million acres of residential lawns. Consumers spend about $466 annually per household on their lawns and gardens. Typically, companies that service lawns fertilize four to six times and apply herbicides two or three times annually. Some may offer a soil test or a lawn analysis.

The lawn and landscape industry...