I've got garden fever and I've got it bad

Our house last spring before the garden work we had done:

Front yard spring 2012. Notice hated juniper bushes.

The hated junipers covered the entire right side of the front of our yard. They were wild and unruly, and I did not like them. They annoyed me. They came out.

Picture taken from the front porch after we got rid of them.

We had that whole aread cleared out, a bunch of weedy things removed, including poison ivy (it makes me itch to type the words), regular English ivy (boo!), and other bits of garden blech. Lots of things that used to be beside the front door were moved out there and other ground covers and shade lovers were added. See those Akuba in the back of the photo (to the right of the tree trunk)? Those are where the bulk of the juniper used to be.

Back yard, right side, view from patio. I like the bench, but we need to fix it.

Left side of yard. That was the BEST the mulch ever looked.

View from composters of back of house and patio.

Moving over to the left, see patio. Right in front of patio I'd like to put in a herb spiral.That's Jim and Andy's dog Maggie. Hi Maggie!

Right side of back yard again, taken from next to the house. Patio on left just past corner of house. two raised beds.

What else would I like to do to the garden?

Currently reading Douglas W. Tallamy's book Bringing Nature Home - How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants. I'm interested in getting a lot more natives in to sustain wildlife and because I have sneaking suspicion they will require less care/watering.

Also want to grow more food. Thomas and I've puttered around with our raised beds and growing in containers, but I'd like to plant some things that will be permanent - fruit trees, asparagus, raspberries and blackberries. Then I still want to have things like tomato, pepper, etc. We also want to figure out a way to get an arbor or pergola covered with hearty kiwi into the garden eventually. See this arbor thing with kiwi?

from debraprinzing.com

I want an herb spiral. Isn't this one beautiful?

from savvyhousekeeping.com

What nuts can you grow in Maryland? I think it's the time of year, we are entering my dead zone, February is always the worst month for me, the winter has gone on forever...and I want to plant something! To scratch my garden itch I am reading garden blogs, garden books, and garden catalogs. I have also discovered that the Youtube has many good gardening videos and am learning a lot from that!