Yes, you can create your own “humble” landscape shirt. I did. But perhaps you should check with your boss first, to make sure it’s OK to customize company uniforms.
When I was hired as a landscape supervisor I found several certification patches at home and then it hit me. Why not customize my company uniform and show off my certifications? Why else would the organizations be sending them out, if not to show them off?
So I took my T-shirt and patches to a local Korean-owned dry cleaner who installed them for something like $8.
CLHT
The Certified Landscape Technician is a written and practical test administered by the Canadian Landscape Nursery Association. The program is also changing to make it more in line with the Red Seal Journeyman Horticulturist program. Thus the name change from CLT to CLHT.
The logo means that as a worker I’ve gone through practical and written tests; and I’m a committed landscape professional. Anyone hiring me will know that I can do some basic things like prune, handle a blower, chainsaw, and fix a broken irrigation line.
The practical tests are also evolving and in the future it will be up to employers to create the testing stations. Judges will then review and mark the video recordings.
I should point out that the practical testing has been completely dropped in the United States.
ISA
When you become ISA (International Society of Arboriculture) certified you get a patch in the mail and then again every time you renew your certification. The ISA gives you three years to obtain thirty education credits.
I firmly believe that all landscapers should be ISA certified because it allows them to do extra work; and it eases their clients’ anxieties about landscapers touching their prized trees.
All landscapers should be able to maintain their trees. I even collected my tree blog posts into an eBook on Landscape Tree Maintenance. It’s available on Amazon; just search for Vas Sladek.
No joke
Some people ridiculed my “humble” T-shirt until it went missing. I took it off somewhere and never saw it again. Allegedly one of our young temps was seen wearing it and then he left. The shirt pictured above is version 2. So be careful. Your humble shirt might become a target of thieves.
