WDVA Grounds and Nursery Services Specialist 4, Full-Time - Permanent, Washington Soldiers Home

Posting number: 2026-06498

Department: Dept. of Veterans Affairs

Division: Washington Soldiers Home

Job classification: GROUNDS AND NURSERY SERVICES SPECIALIST 4

Posting type: Open & Promotional

Categories: Facility Management

Summary

Grounds and Nursery Services Specialist 4
 Full-Time - Permanent
Washington Soldiers Home

Do you enjoy creating and maintaining safe, welcoming, and beautiful outdoor spaces? The Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs is seeking a skilled Grounds and Nursing Services Specialist 4 to support the upkeep of the grounds at our Washington Soldiers Home. In this role, you’ll perform experienced gardening and landscaping work, caring for all grounds, landscapes, nurseries, and greenhouse areas.

If you take pride in a well-maintained outdoor environment and want to make a meaningful impact, Serving Those Who Served, we invite you to apply today!

Please note: The expected shift for this position is 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.

*This position has been posted within the assigned pay range through Step L. Step M has not been published as this is considered the longevity step, in alignment with state HR compensation rules.

Updated as of July 1, 2025: This position is eligible for "Supplement Basic Shift Premium" for 24/7 Facilities. Employees who are assigned to a facility that provides direct care to residents, patients, and/or clients and whose duties are required to be performed on location will receive an additional one dollar ($1.00) per hour of supplemental basic shift premium for each hour of basic shift premium. This shift premium does not apply to overtime hours. The supplemental basic shift premium shall expire on June 29, 2027.

At the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs (WDVA), we are passionate about our mission of “Serving Those Who Served.” As a national leader in our advocacy for nearly 500,000 Veterans and their family members, we strive to connect them to earned benefits as well as innovative programs focused on their overall health and wellness. In addition, we provide critical community services through a variety of programs, and at our four State Veterans Homes located in Orting, Port Orchard, Spokane, and Walla Walla. These locations provide Medicare and Medicaid nursing home care to Veterans, including, in some instances, their spouses, widows, or Gold Star Families.

Examples of duties

Some of what you'll be doing:

• Performs and leads others in preparing and maintaining outdoor floral beds, display areas for planting, soil improvements, and additional amendments, implementing/planting floral displays as designed, maintaining and monitoring floral displays for disease and pest control utilizing chemical, biological and other control measures as appropriate.
• Cultivate, water, fertilize floral displays; prune and mulch as needed.
• Remove annual floral displays after frost and clean up beds, trim back and mulch perennials.
• Prepares beds for all planting of spring bulbs.
• Maintain turf grass areas; fertilize, pest management, irrigation and mowing. Maintain extensive hedge material; shearing, shaping, and cultural requirement.
• Mow lawns; trim grass near fences, signposts, building perimeters, road culverts, bridges. Leaf removal using a tractor and a front mounted 72-inch vacuum power blower.
• Rake, pick up debris, and keep campus lawns looking attractive. Irrigation of lawns, trees, and shrubs using lawn sprinklers, hoses, and water breakers. Identification of lawn disease and insect damage and control as needed.
• Apply fertilizers to lawns. Calibrate sprayer per pesticide label recommendation, also fertilizer spreaders. Remove, relocate, and replace soil in area to be seeded. Knowledge of different types of grass seed and where to apply (shade, full sun, partial sun, arid).
• Restore or renovate bare spots in lawns by reseeding, resoddinq, and dethatching.
• Operate lawn aerator and fertilizer spreader powered by tractor. Service and maintain power equipment (change oil, check and change hydraulic fluids, radiator fluids, mower blades, aerator tins). Effective use of hand tools and their use, brooms, shovels, forks, rakes, leaf and garden mauls, pick, post hole diggers etc.

Qualifications

Required:

• Two (2) years' experience in gardening, plant care, landscape construction and grounds maintenance.
• A college degree involving major study in agronomy, botany, horticulture, soils or closely allied field m