another shrub i came upon browsing thur my pics: carissa macrocarpa, common name is natal plum. it has beautiful smell. normally it has thorns and can be grown as shrub/tree or hedge. but there are dwarf varieties that are also thornless - it should be fairly easy to find. it's drought resistant and grows in the sun. the leaves are very fleshy and should withstand the wind well. plus it bears edible fruit similar in taste to sweet cranberry. i think it's quite popular in the gardens. here's pic it untrimmed trailing from the balcony. not a dwarf :) Here is a link that might be useful: floridata on carissa

Like you, I wanted a longer season to make mulberry muffins and was impressed by all the happy customers growing IL Everbearing up north. The plant that I got from a well-known Houston area nursery was represented as an "IL Everbearing" and has grown well and faithfully made berries. But they are les than 1/2" long MAX. Perfect for bird beaks, but not for a big, hungry human tummy. Nurseries never mislabel plants, right? So, I got scions from a nursery up north from 3 recommended varieties to replace the tops on the supposed IL Everbearing. The grafts all took. The 3 kinds of fruit were very unimpressive and had very little flavor at all. So next March I will clip off those and regraft every branch with a proven, tasty, big-enough variety that works well producing fruit all April each year. Shangri La. Pick them early if you want more tart ness, and pick them a little later if you want less tartness and more sweetness. Pick them too late and they are insipidly sweet/flat tasting. Drop unwanted berries in a big pot of continually moist potting soil and you may have lots of Shangri La seedlings sprouting up that can later be potted separately to give away or plant elsewhere. The leaf patterns will vary a lot. The seedlings grow very fast in full Sun and in good, moist soil mix. Go Saints.

In my opinion best advice is to seek treatment for phobia. I had a severe phobia of dogs that I had to get treated and it is very worth it and I think a lot of people that have more "socially acceptable phobias" (e.g. spiders or snakes rather than beloved dogs, people thought I was evil for being scared of dogs! even though I have been up to cottonmouths before and been fine, didn't bother me,... but as a kid I got CHASED DOWN by dogs and attacked so...). We share this world with a lot of creatures, it's something to get used to. Desensitization&exposure therapy is best to build yourself up first before you ever see one. That being said, eliminating brush piles in areas you frequent/maintain a lot, keeping it open will keep snakes out of those areas and make them favor more wild spots. Keeping things open tends to be best for the more cultivated areas of the garden anyway, to maintain airflow. ALSO snakes are often not very active in the day except after rains. They don't like being out in the open especially in the day because one of their main predators, hawks, can see them. I rarely see snakes around my house and I have a bunch of brush lol I've only seen them out at night (there's the cutest baby kingsnake but i digress). avoid times when snakes are most active and you'll be a lot less likely to see them. anyway best of luck treating your phobia, it's a hard road but very worth it to be free of it

Thanks, sportsguy and wayne. Looked up some pictures and pretty sure that's what it was. The tiny size fits, too. From what I read, a brown snake is sub-terranean most of the time so that also makes sense that I found it pulling grass away from the wall. Wish I would have had the presence of mind to try to catch it for a better look (not to try to keep.) It was SO CUTE! He/she is welcome to eat as many slugs and bugs as it can find! Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction.