There are several signs of fall in my Central Texas garden. The Mexican Mint Marigold is in full bloom after a summer of green. I can always count on their bright and cheerful flowers after the temperatures begin to cool.
The fall asters are look like lavender firecracker bursts with the fine little petals.
The end of summer also brings out these sunflowers – Helianthus Maxmilliani. They are rather leggy this year from getting too much shade under the oak trees, but I still love their statuesque 6 feet tall form.

Blooms are the only thing that comes with the fall garden. As the temperatures drop, I get the itch to start a garden project…or two!
This little bed on the edge of our woods was pure happenstance. After laying out the bed below, I had quite a bit of leftover recycled glass and decided to make use of it, clearing out little understory scrub oaks and cedars and making a proper place for the birdbath that was tucked in the brush.
But this was the real project. This very large terra cotta pot (not my favorite) had been sitting at the edge of the woods gathering dead leaves, because I kept forgetting to water it and the deer kept eating my plants.

So I decided to move it to the crushed granite path entrance as a focal point and surround it with some recycled glass so it would look like a pond leading into the dry river rock dry creek.

Inside it, I planted a volunteer agave, from a passalong given to me by Phillip of East Side Patch . (One of many, I might add! He’s renown for sharing his agaves.)

And the small river rock outlining the tributary came as a donation from my neighbors — left over from a project they did and sitting by the side of the road with grass growing in it! I asked to buy some and they gave it to me.

With the free rock, $5 worth of recycled glass from the city, and old pot and a volunteer agave, this was designing on a budget! My only real cost was labor for the help I had hauling and spreading the rock.

I’m happy with the result, and now I have some more space in the accidental bed for planting! Imagine that!
While we’ve had temps down to 40, the days can still get up to 80 here, so we have about another month to garden here.

What’s on your fall project list? Or is fall already over for you?