MS Landscape study guide
MS Landscape · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The MS Landscape credential is a professional designation for practitioners who design, build, and manage designed outdoor environments - landscape architects and designers, horticulturists, site supervisors, and maintenance or irrigation managers who want a single credential that spans the whole project lifecycle rather than one narrow specialty. Candidates typically arrive from design studios, contracting firms, municipal parks departments, or estate and campus grounds teams. The MS Landscape study guide has 6 sections and about 2,017 words.
01Landscape Design and Planning
The Design and Planning domain tests whether you can turn a client program and a raw site into a buildable, code-compliant plan. Questions cluster around site inventory and analysis, grading and drainage, functional layout, planting composition, and how drawn decisions become quantities and cost.
358 words, about 2 min02Plant Selection and Horticulture
This domain tests whether you can match a plant to its site and keep it alive: hardiness and heat zones, soil pH and drainage, nomenclature, nursery specification, and correct planting technique. USDA cold-hardiness zones set minimum winter temperature; AHS heat zones set summer stress.
350 words, about 2 min03Site Construction and Materials
This domain tests materials, base preparation and detailing for hardscape: segmental pavers, concrete, retaining walls, decks and drainage, plus the arithmetic for ordering material. Segmental pavers need a compacted aggregate base: typically 4 in for pedestrian loads and 6-8 in for vehicular loads, deeper where frost is a factor, plus about 1 in of bedding sand.
312 words, about 2 min04Landscape Maintenance and Management
This domain tests how you keep a finished landscape healthy and on schedule: integrated pest management, pruning timing and technique, turf care, fertilization rates, crew scheduling and jobsite safety. Scout, identify, then act on an economic or aesthetic threshold.
340 words, about 2 min05Irrigation and Water Management
This domain tests hydraulics, zone design, scheduling efficiency and code-required protection: pressure, flow, precipitation rate, head layout, controller settings and backflow prevention. Static pressure is measured at rest; dynamic pressure is what remains while water flows and is what heads actually see.
328 words, about 2 min06Business Practices and Project Management
This domain tests the commercial side of landscape work: estimating, labor burden, margin versus markup, contracts and change orders, scheduling, insurance and payment risk. Cost is materials plus labor (wage x hours x burden) plus equipment, subcontractors, overhead and profit.
329 words, about 2 min