I was planning on asking something like this myself tonight. I am in zone9. My cukes and tomatoes are done. I pulled up my cucumbers yesterday and one row of my maters today. I still have 2 rows of tomatoes to pull up, maybe tomorrow if I can get through the heat. This is my first big veggie garden, so I'm on a trial & error run myself. I went ahead and planted a row of peas which I think will do OK, I also put down a row of okra, which my dad planted his a few weeks ago and they are doing great, so I think these will too. I still have several rows to fill if I can and produce a nice fall crop in time before time to plant my winter crop. I think tomorrow I will get down some corn and a heirloom variety of pole bean I bought on a whim. Like I said, a lot will be trial & error till I see what does good at what point. I'll save my carrots, greens, turnips and such for winter crop. I am interested to see what else might work this time of year!! Thanks for the thread!

A living mulch is pretty common but they do often compete with the crop. I've tried clover and rye before. Clover works very well but your veggies need to be well established first for best results and your soil needs to be as weed free as possible. Clover sprouts quickly direct seeded. Not sure the brand of straw i have access to but it is gorgeous. Finely chopped, beautiful texture and a pale bright yellow. Pretty much my go-to mulch for herbs and veggies, and others like basil and greens i plant thick enough to not need a mulch but will side dress/mulch with a pro-mix during the grow season. You could initially use a pro-mix as a mulch, then try direct seeding some clover thickly on the leading edge, maybe a foot around the bed....but just trying to visualize what your garden even looks like....or what veggies you are speaking of. Some need space to produce well, so competition from other plantings between means less production of crop. Something fast growing and trailing that has one main root structure may work in some cases, like the sweet potato vines or trailing nasturtiums. Re-routing the growth back into the bed if they escape. I've used them in my brussel sprouts/broccoli/cauliflowers bed before to perk up how dull those plants look most of the early summer. I have a corn area about 20x20 that did well with clover a couple years. Now will be a pumpkin/winter squash bed this year. (covered and not used last year). I've considered a living mulch, but a thick newspaper border covered with a bale of hay works so well and needs less tending and provides a soft surface off the ground for the crop to rest and ripen nice and dry during rainy weather... Google 'living mulch'. Someone may have good ideas and successful companion planting advice more current... since i first read of it years ago, my ideas and use may be outdated....

Yes, you can start them now from seed, anytime between now and about early Sept. I personally would say morning sun and afternoon shade to avoid the soil baking on hot days and drying out too much, but I'm not home on the weekdays to tend to them. Pots/trays/cell packs all would work. As far as coming true to seed, hard to say. Genetics is always a mystery to me. Many things come close to the parent, in my experience, not necessarily exactly the same but similar. Every once in a while, something is radically different in some way, but that has been the rare exception in my experience.

Ha ha ha ha!!! My empress trees are growing like crazy now! I cut nicks off the top of the still bald catalpas and it's green under there so who knows...I hear they don't come back until May. Here's the funny: I was telling my Mom today that my plan is to have these container trees then put vines and stuff in them; well she just sees these cut back stalks (and doesn't know what we all know know about this) so she didn't think I was going to have trees in my containers, then she didn't think the empress trees would grow here. HA! From the time I showed them to her to the time we got back from dinner they had grown. She then remarked that I could probably sit right there and watch them grow. Probably. You know what though, out of 200+ seeds, only 7 came up. Luckily. I also planted some okra seeds in there and they sprouted in 24 hours. The containers are full of that $2 a bag cow manure they sell at walmart. Maybe it's even $1 a bag, whatever. I anticipate wild growth this year! And with the empress trees in a pot I can cut them back ea year right? We are having a good spring here in FL so far.