Glad you are all enjoying these. I know I just love to view everyone's pictures even when I can't keep up to post replies...keep em coming everyone! Debra, The cats were there and a portion of her sales went to support a local charity for a spay/neuter program for stray cats. But, darn it, my camera batteries ran out of juice before I got done with daylilies or I'd have taken some photos of the cats too. It was a tough choice to make...cats vs daylilies... LOL

Thank you Lynn for posting the pictures you DID get before the camera batteries, or whatever, died! What a neat garden. Thank you Art for sharing it with your fellow Texans.

Love squash, all types. I have 8 squash sitting on my kitchen counter now, 4 different types. So much cheaper to buy at the farm stands than at a grocery store where they sell by the pound. 99 cents for a butternut squash is much better than paying over $1 a pound. A good improvement for pumpkin pie is a splash of rum or as my friend just used a splash of vodka in her pie filling. Costco was selling their huge pumpkin pies for $5.95 last week for our Thanksgiving. I bought one and shared it with the neighbours. I bake my squash most of the time cut in half in the oven with butter and brown sugar, microwave whole and mash it with cinnamon or chili powder. Spaghetti squash just butter and pepper or a sprinkle of fresh grated parm or romano cheese. Love squash soup.

Thanks re the ID of the cleome. I don't grow annuals so am not familiar with most of them. I did a Google search on 'annual flower thorny stems' and cleome did come up but I couldn't seem to find a picture of the foliage to confirm that it matched.... I had heard that they seed around a lot so I'll warn them about that. re the slope/lower garden - the topography of the property and area is complicated and confusing! The house sits lower than the street and the driveway is sort of a ramp off the street and runs close to their front porch - there is no front garden - there isn't even room for a 'necklace' of green' like we have between the driveway and front porch. The lot slopes from the front of the house to the back - but not to the extent of producing a walk-out basement. The lower garden is naturally lower than the rest and the step down was there when they bought the property. The land behind the fence appears to be higher ground. So they seem to be sitting in a bowl - but there doesn't seem to be water retention problems so I assume that the land continues to drop off somewhere beyond the lower garden. The seating patio in the corner is just steps from the stairs down from the deck. It's a nice place for morning coffee and afternoon and evening relaxing. The outdoor dining table is on the deck. The hanging baskets someone commented on in the second picture above are hanging off the deck. The compost are is - and needs to be - attractive because it is across from the end of the stair from the deck! I took that picture looking down from the deck while standing near the stairs.... The garden space is both attractive, functional and used efficiently.