Tom Reeve

I'm in. I have been sitting on the books for a bit now, so this is good motivation.

I would also suggest Native cane (Arundinaria gigantea). A useful bamboo. I also second looking along streams and creeks and taking cutting. Ask for landowner permission of course.

I think that planting in your front using food perennials, shrubs, and trees would probably be the least likely to attract unwanted attention from neighbors. What works in my town is to put a ring of mulch or better yet compost around any planting, that way when people or the town tries to get you to take it out by citing some zoning law, you can point out that its 'primary' purpose is as a landscape and that it grows food only as a secondary benefit. You might even be able to put in some hugel beds and call them mounded landscaping.

Can't seem to edit on my tablet. Read 1% storm event as 100% storm event, or one that has the potential to occur every year.

One thing to play with the level of the bank on your property's side of the stream. If you can legally alter it ( this might be tricky) to overtop the bank during high flows to then move water into a swale wetland complex. Water can be stored and infiltrated in this manner using ponds, level spreaders, Swales, etc. the plus of this is that during normal flows you are not removing water that is "owned" by your downstream neighbors. It is sort of the opposite of a levy, an artificially lowered sport that allows flood water, say a 1% storm event, to overflow the banks, giving you lots of temporary water for your storage and infiltration. You must take care to ensure the bank toe is protected from erosion using vegetation.

Sorry. Looking back at what I posted, I thought it could be seen as rude. I would (and do) incorporate permaculture design aspects into my bio intensive backyard garden system. Permaculture is about observing the world around you and design your space to take care of the earth, to take care of the people, and to share the surplus. So if you look at the system you want to create, plan accordingly, and then incorporate intensive practices into the system so that they are benefiting the system as a whole, you'd have both a permaculture design and a bio intensive one.
Observation is key and as time passes you will notice what works and what doesn't work as well. You then adjust accordingly. I have a rain garden with natives in my plotted area. It soaks the ground around it. Over the years, I have retaken to planting zucchini, tomatoes, ect in the beds that get the heaviest drink because they do not like their leaves getting wet. I have found that my powdery mildew dropped dramatically after I did this.
I hope this helped.

Why is it one or the other?

It's not enough info to give you an answer then. There are not many broad leafed evergreens in the eastern US, but without more info I can't help. Try browsing some plat id sites.

Without a picture my guess is American Holly, Ilex opaca. Here is a good resource http://www.hort.uconn.edu/plants/i/ileopa/ileopa1.html
Hope that helped.

Brenda,
You should find a two friendly people who have groves of paw paws and see if they will let you dig up a couple of runners to transplant. I have had friends who were very successful with this when their seeds would not germinate. You do need two different colonies though because they will not cross pollinate with the same genetic clone.