Although Extension doesn't collect information on nursery/landscaping businesses nor make company recommendations, we can share some resources that will hopefully be useful. You could look into hiring a Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional, as they are trained in using sustainable gardening techniques, which would include supporting beneficial insects, pollinators, and similar groups. Practitioners of IPM (Integrated Pest Management) would also be valuable consultants, as IPM training emphasizes using multiple approaches to suppress and manage pests, and while pesticides are not forbidden with IPM, they are discouraged and used only as a last resort and in ways that (where possible) minimize risks to non-target organisms like pollinators.

Our Pollinator Gardens web page and its numerous links can help get you started with planning what to grow and what garden elements to provide for wildlife. Essentially, plant species diversity is key to boosting the diversity of pollinators and beneficial insects a landscape supports and attracts. Plants have different vulnerabilities to pests, diseases, and weather extremes, so including a diverse array of plants (including native species) will help ensure that a planting won't be equally affected by any one event and will be more resilient as a whole. Native plants are still susceptible to pests and diseases just like any plant, but when well-matched to the site conditions available, less intervention and maintenance would be needed. It's always much simpler when selecting plants to fit the site attributes (summer sun level, soil drainage, soil acidity (pH), deer browse risk, etc.) rather than attempting to alter the site conditions to meet the needs of specific plants.

Specialist pollinators, like many of our native bees, require certain plants (ideally also native) from which to gather nectar, pollen, or other resources, so by including many species, you'll also help to support them. Additionally, when attracting pollinators by using a variety of flowering plants in the landscape, you're also ensuring there is a greater bank of beneficial insect predators around when they'll be needed to nip a pest outbreak in the bud, since many predaceous insects that feed on nuisance pests like aphids and caterpillars also use flower visits to supplement their diet.

We have lots of web content about growing vegetables (and herbs) and fruits, though be aware that fruit cultivation is more challenging and involved, especially when it comes to tree fruits (compared to shrub fruits). Multiple blog posts about fruits and vegetables may also be useful. For example, we strongly encourage novice fruit growers to begin small, with a few shrub fruits, to get a sense of maintenance requirements and pest/disease prevention before moving on to tree fruits. Many conventional fruits (apple, pear, cherry, peach, etc.) benefit greatly from annual preventative pesticide protection (whether organic or not) unless you are willing to potentially sacrifice a harvest or sustain some tree damage as a result of a disease outbreak, because many infectious conditions cannot be treated (and none can be cured) once they set in and begin to manifest symptoms of damage. Pest damage provides more opportunity for plant recovery in a following year, but still might contribute to branch dieback depending on the pest involved. Fruits less vulnerable (though not immune) to serious problems include persimmon (both Asian and American), fig, jujube, and pawpaw. We have limited online information thus far about growing some of these less-common fruits (though we do include figs, given their popularity), though are continually working to update our fruit pages overall.

With regards to general design tips, start with the largest-maturing plants you intend to grow (whether they're ready to install just yet or not) and decide on their placement, since they will dictate where areas of direct sun are available (not only for themselves, if needed, but also in regards to the shade they will eventually cast as they mature). While close plant spacing can be used in some circumstances and can help out-compete weeds to a certain extent, with harvestable plants, planting too close can decrease yields and reduce plant vigor due to the competition, and plant groups that are too crowded can be more vulnerable to disease. As you plan for plant placement, work your way down to shrubs and then perennials, larger-growing to smaller, which not only helps you visualize how much space is available (accounting for mature size again) but also where to place plants based on how you want to view the planting. (What vantage point makes sense with regards to plants blocking others. Some degree of an obstructed view, enticing a garden visitor to wander and explore, can be a good thing, but it depends on your aesthetic preferences.) Some fruiting plants (blueberries and pawpaw, for example) can have attractive fall foliage colors.

We don't have information for patio or shed construction, though can share some basic greenhouse information:

Greenhouses in the broad sense are varied structures built to accomplish different things, from protecting semi-tender or mostly-hardy plants from the brunt of winter weather (like a hoop house or cold frame does) to housing tropical plants intolerant of cool temperatures (like a heated conservatory). Your goals for using a greenhouse will dictate which type of structure best suits your needs, and therefore how to build it and what plants it can accommodate. Goals can range from simply starting vegetable or flowering annual transplants to get a jump-start on the growing season, to season extension (to keep producing a harvest just a bit longer into the autumn), to year-round food growing, to overwintering (or housing year-round) tropicals like citrus, jasmine, Ficus, and Philodendron.

Here are some Extension resources that provide detailed information about home greenhouses:

• The Hobby Greenhouse - Oklahoma State University
• Hobby Greenhouse Design Notes [PDF]
• Hobby Greenhouses - University of Georgia Extension

If your goal is increased food production by way of shielding crops from cold in early spring and late autumn, you can use a small high tunnel or greenhouse. Either one can be a DIY project or purchased as a kit. In comparison, a greenhouse is more permanent and will need to be ventilated with a fan and probably heated. You can also find how-to videos by searching the web for "garden" and "high tunnel" along with search results narrowed to ".edu" pages.

• Starting a Garden: Season Extension - Illinois Extension
• Extending the Garden Season with High Tunnels - Penn State
• High Tunnel Construction [PDF] - Mississippi State Extension

The simplest use of a greenhouse would be to consider it a large "cold frame," which are unheated structures meant to shield young seedlings and transplants from the brunt of the cold while allowing them to acclimate prior to planting outside. Otherwise, you can heat a greenhouse to accommodate cold-intolerant plants, but that tends to be expensive depending on how well insulated it is along with the type of heat source. Seed starting may also benefit from supplemental artificial light, depending on the plants involved and what time of year the process is begun, and this can be difficult to provide in a greenhouse where temperatures and high ambient humidity may impact the performance of the light fixture.

How cool the plants prefer to get will also determine what type of structure makes more sense. For example, potted rosemary, citrus, and flowering florist's Cyclamen do well with insulated but cool conditions during winter where they might experience nights in the upper 50s, but Alocasia, many members of the African Violet family, and basil should not be chilled to that degree.

One other aspect to keep in mind is that natural daylight in the winter is not long enough or intense enough here for most plants to continue growing, whether they are decorative plants or those used for harvesting foliage (like salad greens) or fruit (like tomatoes). So, while plants may stay alive when the right temperatures are provided, they tend to stagnate in size and not actively grow (or may grow very slowly) until spring. For plants that don't have very high light requirements, the use of artificial light to supplement natural light might allow them to grow or bloom during this time, but it will be difficult to supply plants requiring strong light (like tomatoes again) with enough light energy and daylength for them to continue bearing crops.

Miri