Gardening

Okay, I will try to be as specific as possible, but keep in mind that I have no idea what plants are available to you locally and it may be hit or miss.

You can only do a cactus garden if you have at least 4 hours of direct sun. Anything less than that will make you a bona fide plant murderer.

When you say you have shade, what do you mean? Do you get any direct sun whatsoever, even if it's just for 1 hour? If so, how many hours and is it in the morning or the afternoon? If you don't get direct sun, do you get dappled sun through the trees? If so, for how long?

For the sunny veggie garden, how many hours of sun does that get? Morning or afternoon?

What is the average minimum annual temp that you go down to in Houston? 30-35 degrees? I don't remember.

The more details you can give, the more educated my recommendations will be, and the greater the likelihood will be that your plants will actually survive. Also, planting anything July-September is probably a very bad idea due to extreme heat stress involved with new plants. Anything you plant in the middle of summer will have to be watered every day to establish a strong root system. Best times for planting: spring and fall.