If you would like to hire someone as a consultant or designer/installer, you could look for graduates of the Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional program, which provides training in sustainable landscaping techniques. (This can include the use of native plants in the landscape, managing stormwater runoff, etc. Use their "find a pro" tool to browse candidates.) There are a growing number of landscaping companies that either offer or specialize in the use of native plants in home landscapes, though Extension's Home and Garden Information Center doesn't maintain a database of particular companies or recommend individual businesses, so we don't have a list to share. We do have native plant gardening content online, though it's not focused on designing spaces as much as introducing concepts and featuring a handful of native species to give gardeners new to using native plants some ideas for species to consider growing. Some pages do have links to other resources, though, that provide sample garden designs to give people inspiration and ideas.

If you receive a design plan or plant list to consider using and would like a second opinion, we're happy to provide feedback about plant selection, placement (with photos of the site in question), or substitution (in case certain species are hard to source and you need an alternative).

A site assessment is a good first step for a gardener or hired consultant. It determines what the conditions are for the planting area, such as summer sun exposure, soil moisture/drainage and overall soil type (sandy, clay-based, loamy, etc.), and if browsing deer will be an issue. For example, does a roof downspout outlet empty into the planting area, keeping it wetter in rainy weather, or does the area lie under mature shade trees whose canopy and root competition will keep the soil drier overall? Are there any obstacles to mature size, like overhead utility lines or tree branches, that limit the eventual height of any installed shrubs or small trees? If you'd like to learn about soil conditions (more so the acidity [pH] than nutrient content in this case) to make plant selection more well-matched to the area's growing conditions, that's another good early step in the planning process; a laboratory soil test can be done to assess soil pH and a few other features. (See linked page for information about testing and interpreting results, which we can also help with.)

Miri