The shift to cooler weather as fall approaches doesn’t have to mean the end of your garden. The mild temperatures can breed beautiful plants well into the winter.

There is a plethora of plants and vegetables that thrive in the autumn weather and can fill your garden with color and variety.

Margie Cooper, the hard goods manager at Smithfield Gardens, said fall is a great time to start a vegetable garden and load it with cole crops, such as cabbage and kale, which grow best in cooler temperatures.

“They are great for the fall,” she said. “They do better in the fall because they don’t bolt as fast.”

Cooper said annual vegetable plants bolt when they sprout flowers, and they aren’t as good once they flower.

Although it is too late to start growing these veggies from seeds, she said, this time of the month is a great time to put in immature plants that have been nurtured at a garden center.

“They like the cooler weather,” Cooper said. “They are more of cool temperature vegetables.”

These veggies do great when planted now because the remnants of warm weather during the end of summer help the plants grow, but once they are large enough to collect for eating, the weather has cooled, and their growth slows.

Other cole crops that make for a great fall veggie garden include broccoli, cauliflower, collard greens and Swiss chard.

In addition to the vegetables, Cooper said, there are some herbs that grow in the fall, such as basil. However, she added, rosemary is the only herb that will keep when it gets very cold outside because it is an evergreen.

Cooper said gardeners planting a fall vegetable garden should be careful in caring for their plants, especially when winter gets closer.

“You have to do your homework,” she said.

Although kale and collards tend to taste sweeter once they have survived their first frost, Cooper said, other vegetables won’t handle be able to handle the chill.

Along with veggies and herbs, there are also wide varieties of flowers that love autumn, too.

Goldenrod, mums, aster, pansies and snapdragons all flourish in the fall months.

“A lot of people look for snap dragons in the spring, but around here, snap dragons are cool bloomers,” Cooper said.

To create a colorful garden, she said, fall flowers can be planted alongside summer blooms that stick around after the heat.

To avoid having empty pots once the worst of winter comes in February, Cooper said, she suggests placing evergreens throughout your garden with other flowers and plants.

She also suggested planting a leafy vegetable, like lettuce, next to colorful flowers, such as pansies, to add dynamic character to the garden.

Cooper said bright light Swiss chard makes a great addition because its thick stems are colorful.

“It’s a great focal point, and you can have lots of fun with color,” she said.