In addition I do a lot of work in Colorado, but they don't register their landscape architects. Basically what an architect is to a building, the landscape architect is to everything outside of the building. In short, landscape architects are trained to design just about anything related to the outdoors, from a shopping center site, to a campground, to the restoration of a toxic waste site. My yard is where I test out all the new ideas and products that come along, and a lot of them don't work out. So please don't call your local landscape architect and ask for a price quote for mowing your lawn.
Education is another important thing to look at when evaluating qualifications.
It just so happens that I graduated from Cal Poly, Pomona , which has a reputation for one of the best landscape architecture programs around. The only problem is I graduated with a degree in Agronomy , not landscape architecture. I enrolled in an introductory irrigation course and liked it, so I signed up for all the irrigation courses Cal Poly had to offer. This was fortunate, as the professor who taught the courses was Dr. Joe Y. T. Hung , who is a world renown irrigation expert. So my educational background is in irrigation, plants, and soils.