I think some thought on a design would be a good idea. The plants you mention for the natural "moist shade" garden dont actually take shade well, with the exception of 'nettles' by which I think you mean lamium. (There are actually several perennials with nettle in the name, so I could be wrong). Bee balm is a sun perennial and in your zone can be very rigorous so think carefully about where you plant it and how much maintenance you are going to be able to give it (it probably needs to be divided and kept in bounds every other year)Yellow dock is generally considered an invasive weed, and looks like one, so it would be difficult to incorporate into a garden. And please pay attention to the warning about mint, it will easily take over any garden area. Just based on the few plants you named, I think maybe you should do a bit more research before you get going. I dont want to discourage you- please go forward with a garden, just make sure you understand the plants you are planting.

I didn't have much time to write about this, so here's how we attract and keep the wildlife. I have a mass planting of the verbena bonariensis that I planted just for our goldfinches. They love it. Right now, the bees are in a total frenzy on all of the hypericum blooms (St. Johns Wort). Previously, it was the lavender and nepeta. For the butterflies, I have bronze fennel, parsley and milkweed planted as host plants. My milkweed hasn't bloomed, so it hasn't been used as a host. I have lots of food source for them through flowers. We have a birdbath that where we keep wet sand for a beach for them. For the hummingbirds, I have penstemon, monarda and agastache scattered throughout the entire garden. I have a grouping of salvia red Navajo, which they really love. There are many other plants that they like, too. One of the guys watches me refill the feeders and will beg when they are empty. He buzzes me quite often when I'm outside. He has a favorite branch in our willow tree where he sits when we're on the front porch. Frogs, both tree frogs and bullfrogs, live in our manmade stream in the garden and the natural creek in our woods. We have toads throughout the garden. The geckos follow us around the garden and sun themselves on our stone foundation, steps and porch. We have bluebird houses throughout our neighborhood and we have them on our property as well. We have shrubs that serve as shelter and our property is also bordered by acres of woods on two sides. They are particularly fond of our wax myrtles (plant them away from the house because the scent isn't good) and hollies. They like to hang out in our willow trees to scope out the garden and get in line at the birdfeeders. For some reason, they love our clump bamboo, so as it grows larger, I'm wondering if it will become a home. We also have open meadow which attracts mourning doves (who also walk around our garden paths all the time), rufous-sided towhees, meadowlarks, robins and bluebirds. There are several woodpeckers who visit our feeders. The goldfinches are the most common in our garden. The carolina chickadees also hang out and get very close to me (they know who supplies the food, I suppose). Yes, I'm a crazy lady who talks to all these critters who are hanging around me all the time! My son thought I was crazy, but after working in the garden with me during his spring break, he started talking to the critters, too! :-) Lastly, we have the cute, but destructive deer and squirrel population. A doe had her fawn in the woods next our house last year and she did the same thing this year. They aren't afraid of us, or our greyhound. Here's the latest addition (taken in the rain and 15x zoom, so it's fuzzy):

I was going to suggest nematodes, but I see you've already found that. That's the only solution I know of. I think these are Japanese beetles. I have LOTS of them; any time I dig new sod they're everywhere and I dispose of most of them as i find them into a bucket of water. The good news is that despite all the grubs, I've never actually seen a Japanese beetle, and I do a lot of gardening (flowers and vegetables), so I don't consider them a problem. If you don't have a problem with the beetles, my advice would be just ignore them and dispose of them as you come across them. Bugs really only become a problem if they bite you or start eating your plants. At least that's what I've come to believe...

Thank you dbarron and Susan for your insight! After thinking about the area and researching plants that grow in drier conditions, I've decided to go with another layout and other plants altogether. I've attached the new layout and new plant selection. I also put the birdhouse tree in the layout, which I don't think will provide any shade because it's a trunk with bird houses on it (I didn't want to remove the tree completely because birds like the area too, but if the tree grew any bigger it would destroy the fence). I also simplified what I'm putting in the rain garden to four different plant species, and I hope they coexist together peacefully- gro low fragrant sumac apparently can be overwhelming but birds and other wildlife really like it. I think the rest of the plants the amphibians will like too, especially the fox sedge and prairie dock. I haven't started digging yet- it looks like late August or early September will be the earliest I can plant, after two house repairs are completed outside (I don't want the area to get trampled!) I'm looking forward to posting pictures of it after it's done.