Videos

Duties include, but may not be limited to the following:

• Operates agricultural motor vehicles for grounds and street maintenance, landscaping, fertilization, transplanting, laying sod, preparing sod and seed beds, aerating lawns, pruning trees.
• Performs cutting, edging, aerating, thatching, grooming, weeding, trimming, weeding, planting shrubs/flowers, and transplanting gardening-related tasks.
• Applies a wide range of chemicals to plants, turf, flowers and trees and maintains detailed logs of chemical usage as per federal, state, and local requirements.
• Power washes buildings and entrance/waiting areas, maintains cleanliness of trash receptacles and picnic areas.
• Installs, repairs, and maintains irrigation systems, includes: piping, meters, valves, low voltage irrigation controllers, zone control valves, and irrigation heads.
• Operates a variety of equipment (e.g., mowers, chippers, tractors and accessories, sweepers, turf vacuums, edger's, seeders, tillers, rakes, aerators, sprayers gas weed eaters, tree trimmers, backpack blowers, trash pumps, and various other hand tools.
• Performs minor operational maintenance on equipment (e.g., oil change, filter replacement; lubricate bearings/mechanical joints; replace belts) and clean to maintain optimal performance, reliability, and safe operation.
• Performs other duties, as necessary.

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
• You may be required to serve a probationary period
• Pre-employment physical required
• Subject to background/security investigation
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued dentification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP)

Qualifications

SCREEN-OUT/JOB ELEMENT: Requires the ability to do the work of a Gardener without more than normal supervision. Such experience must include performing gardening tasks such as maintaining shrub and flower beds to include cutting, weeding, trimming, pruning and planting; maintaining irrigation systems to include piping, meters, valves and irrigation heads; using various types of landscaping hand/power tools and equipment; assisting with fertilizing, transplanting, aerating, and applying chemicals according to directions. (See detailed position criteria in the announcement duties section. Resume(s) must clearly support this experience to receive credit.)

PHYSICAL EFFORT AND WORK CONDITIONS: Performs landscape work which requires the full use of both hands and arms. The work requires the expenditure of a high degree of physical and mental effort in preparing and utilizing sod, flower beds and various other pieces of equipment. The person in this position sits for long periods operating mowers and equipment, frequently climbs ladders to prune trees and frequently lifts objects such as bags of fertilizer, grass seed, etc., weighing as much as 100 lbs. The gardening and tree farm tasks require considerable walking, stooping, climbing, lifting, kneeling, bending, squatting, carrying, and reach over/under.
Will be exposed to weather extremes of hot and cold, both indoors and outdoors for extended hours and is exposed to infectious hazards, chemicals, hazardous materials, gases/fumes, and the possibility of burns, infection, scrapes, and broken bones. Employee is subject to insect bites and stings and exposure to poisonous plants such as poison Ivy and poison oak.

Applicants will be rated in accordance with the OPM Federal Wage System Qualifications. For this position, the job element method is used to match what you, the applicant, can do against what the work calls for. Your knowledge, skills and abilities will be compared to the knowledge, skills and abilities (called job elements) needed for success. Your qualifications will first be evaluated against the prescribed screen out element (WG-2 and higher only; screen-outs are not applicable to WG-1). Applicants who appear to meet the screen out element are considered for further rating; those who do not are rated ineligible and are eliminated from consideration. The potential eligibles are rated against the remainder of the job elements. While a specific length of training and experience is not required, your responses to the questionnaire must be supported by detailed descriptions of your experience on your resume.

You will be rated on the following Job Elements as part of the assessment questionnaire for this position:

• Dexterity and Safety
• Interpret Instructions, Specifications (other than blueprint reading)
• Materials
• Measuring Instruments
• Technical Practices
• Use and Maintain Tools and Equipment
• Without more than normal supervision

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. If your resume does not support your questionnaire answers, we will not allow credit for your response(s).

Your responses to the assessment questionnaire will be reviewed along with the information provided in your resume and supporting documentation to determine if you are qualified for the position. If, after reviewing your resume and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications and or experience, your rating may be lowered and/or you may lose consideration for this position. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your eligibility.

The Department of Veterans Affairs performs pre-employment reference checks as an assessment method used in the hiring process to verify information provided by a candidate (e.g., on resume or during interview or hiring process); gain additional knowledge regarding a candidate's abilities; and assist a hiring manager with making a final selection for a position.

Candidates who apply under All U.S. Citizens announcements will be rated and ranked using Category Rating procedures. Qualified candidates will be assigned to a quality category. The categories are defined as follows:

• Best qualified - applicants possessing experience that substantially exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are highly proficient in all requirements of the job and can perform effectively in the position;
• Well qualified - applicants possessing experience that meets the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are proficient in some, but not all, of the requirements of the job; and
• Qualified - applicants possessing experience and/or education that meets the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors.