Well...I appreciate all your responses, and I'm going to assume it's a common garter snake...for my OWN peace of mind...LOL I believe he was so grumpy because of the flash from the camera...it probably scared the bejeezus out of'm. Plus...I'm wondering if it isn't the onset of hibernation time. I mean, afterall, he WAS way down under some pretty hard, clay covered by about 4" of mulch. He was probably sleeping...or getting his last full meal of night crawlers when I uncovered him. *I'm in SE PA, not Florida at the moment. He's gone now and I don't know where...hehehe...but I covered the hole back up with the mulch. BTW: When I let Picture it! automatically tweak the color and brightness levels, the colors of the snake were changed a bit. Here are two pics showing actual color...

Many kalanchoes reproduce by growing 'babies' from leaf margins - some very many, some less. There are approx. 125species, and some are very prolific. K. delagoensis and K. diagremontiana are both referred to as Mother of Thousands (or millions :). Most other sp will reproduce very easy from any cuttings. Plantlets will grow from leaves just laying around like in post above, but not as many as two mentioned. K. prolifera is not as bad - but in warm climate may be considered invasive (like Nik posted before).

Ah, your mama is the unfortunate owner of a true garden thug, altho it is beautiful. This is goosenecked loosestrife, which has an inborn desire to take over the world. I have it, planted it deliberately many years ago and have watched its proclivity for domination ever since. I tried getting rid of it some years ago by digging and sifting the roots as thoroughly as I could. To no avail, really. It is back in all its glory. Unfortunately, it can and will send its runners into the lawn. The possible good news for your mother is that it seems hers is located between the driveway and what looks to be a sidewalk of cement (?). In that case, the plant may be effectively stymied in its spread. Make sure to deadhead the blooms before they can spread viable seed and just enjoy this pretty & unusual flower form in the meantime!

By scopa, i am referring to parodia scopa and its close relatives (schlosseri, erubescens etc). Small to medium sized stems, large yellow flowers, often short spines, white or brown rarely yellow, tight and small ribs. Parodia as a genus has groups(based on former genera) - core parodia(2 groups, microsperma subspecies and relatives(resemble mammillaria/rebutia), and comarapana-subtereanea group(look like dwarf ferocactus some of them). Most flowers are red or orange, some yellow. -ottonis-mammullosa group(related to scopa, larger ribs and spines) -magnifica-leninghausii( very prominent yellow spines, both thing and large ribs, but larger in general), former eriocactus -hasselbergii(former brasilicactus). They look like rebutias at first glance, and are loosely related to the core parodia plants. This species(+subs) is a thing on its own i suppose. Green or orange flowers. -the scopa group mentioned above.