Nope! You're seeing sprouts on ESTABLISHED plants. Anything planted now would not do well :( Mid Septemeber to the end of September is probably safe ;)

It depends.

If you are talking about planting native desert trees, palms, or tropicals then now is a perfect time to plant because they need heat to establish themselves (roots) before winter when they basically stop growing or slow down to a crawl (in terms of growth).

During monsoon season when both heat and humidity is high, planting now yields spectacular results for such heat loving plants and it is a lot less stressful during the monsoon than our typical oven heat with extremely low humidity and desiccating winds.

If you are planting most other things that don't need heat/higher soil temps (annuals, etc) then I would wait. If we get a prolonged heat spell than you can always shade-cloth things if need be.

Oops. I already planted some California Poppy seeds. Oh well, at least I only planted a few. :)

Sunfrog, you say you are in Zone 8, but don't say where on your page. Obviously, you're not here in the Valley. What's your elevation? That makes a lot of difference when it comes to what you plant and when. Post a little more info, please, and I'm sure you'll get better answers. There are things that Phx folks can plant now (not without some risk), but depending on where you are, if you wait till Sept. or Oct., it might be too late.

OK, Sunfrog, I see you're in Tucson. Ask that question again and address it to Tucsonans. A little difference in climate sometimes makes a big difference in plants and planting. Good luck. Those little sprouts are probably from seeds that sat there dry as a bone till the rains came. Mine are mostly weeds, but some are pretty nevertheless. ;-)