FAQ

No. There is no provincial licence to work as a landscaper, and landscaping is not among the 23 compulsory trades where certification is required (Skilled Trades Ontario). There is a voluntary trade, Horticultural Technician 441C, with 5,400 hours on the job and 720 hours in school, which nobody is obliged to hold (Skilled Trades Ontario). Landscape Architect is a protected title (OALA). Anyone applying pesticides for hire does need an exterminator licence, and the business needs an operator licence (Ontario).

As an indicative range, weekly cutting on a standard suburban lot runs $40 to $70 a visit or about $1,000 to $1,800 for the season, a fertilizer programme adds $300 to $700, and core aeration is $150 to $350. A spring clean-up is commonly $200 to $500 and a fall clean-up $250 to $600, more on a treed Beaverbrook lot. These are planning figures, not quotes, and every price follows a site visit.

Yes, if anything goes into the ground. Ontario One Call states that requesting a locate before you dig is free and is the law, that homeowners must submit the request at least five business days before digging, and that locates are valid for at least 60 days. The instructions that come back may require hand digging within a metre of the markings (Ontario One Call). A fence post counts.

On an urban lot of one hectare or less, a tree of 30 cm trunk diameter or more measured at 1.3 m above grade is a distinctive tree under Tree Protection By-law 2020-340 and needs a permit before it is removed, injured or destroyed, with a 10 cm threshold on urban lots over a hectare. These figures come from a summary published by an Ottawa arborist firm (Advanced Tree Solutions), because the City's own pages return an error to automated reading. Confirm with Forestry Services before cutting.

No. The City's landscaping guide says you are not allowed to change the grading of a property, that water cannot be directed to neighbouring properties unless that is part of the approved plan, and that ditches should not be altered (City of Ottawa). Restoring the designed grade is the permitted fix.

Ottawa's landscaping guide states that a building permit is needed for retaining walls more than 1 m high when they are next to public property, next to access to a building, or on private property open to the public, and that steps, landings and guards must meet the Building Code (City of Ottawa). Confirm your specific situation with City building services before building.

The homeowner, or the contractor if the contract covers it. The City clears public roads and sidewalks, not private driveways. Ask whether windrow clearing is included as a return visit. The provincial minimum standards give an idea of how long a residential street may wait: Class 5 roads are addressed at 10 cm within 24 hours (O. Reg. 239/02).

Only within Ontario's cosmetic pesticide ban, which permits Class D products and active ingredients on the Allowable List for lawn and garden use and excludes Classes A, B and C from cosmetic use (Ontario). Anyone applying pesticide commercially on a property they do not own or farm needs an exterminator licence, and the business needs an operator licence with insurance (Ontario).

No. This site is run by Wells DevOps as an information site about landscaping and property maintenance in Kanata. We do not carry out any landscaping work. Enquiries are passed to one local contractor who quotes and does the work directly, and every price on this site is an indicative 2026 range rather than a quote.