Texas Gardening: What to sow in Austin?, 1 by PeeperKeeper

PeeperKeeper wrote:
I've moved to a new home this year. I was never much of one for starting seeds indoors, or even sowing them outdoors, but it occurred to me that a good way to keep my gardening budget under control (okay, there's no WAY it will be under control THIS year, but I could at least tell my hubby I am trying to save some $$) would be to start some plants from seed now rather than buying the established plants in the Spring.

What would be some good plants for sowing outdoors and when should I sow them? I did some bluebonnets in the fall, but I'm thinking more about flower beds now. So far, my list includes Cosmos and Coneflowers (been spending some time in the coneflower forum). My neighborhood tries to stay with as much of a Texas Native style as possible, so extra points if it's a TX native, and we do have deer so deer resistance is a really big plus!

I guess these are the factors I want to consider:

Deer resistance (although I *think* I have some areas safe from the deer, ie fenced, dog, etc.)
Native or well adapted (but I'll be relaxing this rule in back by the pool).
Color
Butterfly and bird attracting (I love berries like Yaupon, coralberry, etc. and I want hummers to visit too!)
Height (in the bed in the photo, I need some tall plants to cover the foundation on the house side, but shorter ones for the deck side so it doesn't hide the rest of the bed.)

Here is my back bed by the pool. It runs between the pool deck and the house and it is like a dry creek bed that slopes up towards the house on one side, up towards the deck on the other and has the riverstone in the middle. Here in the back yard, I want to stick with blues, pinks and purples and in the front yard I want oranges, reds and yellows.

Since I took this photo, I have put in some abelia shrubs, a Mountain Laurel, a couple of trellises with clematis against the wall, a Duranta and a few other plants here and there. I just don't have a more recent photo handy.