Start broccoli now. Cabbage as well as brussels sprouts. Keep in mind there are less cold weather crops, and that includes beets and carrots. Greens and lettuce are usually cool weather, but many can grow in summer too. Some seeds can survive winters as can some herbs like thyme. I started thyme from seeds two years ago and they are huge plants now. Dill has now started to flower and I never even planted a single dill seed. The dill all sprouted from seeds that dropped from last summer and those plants came from the year before. I just hope my tiny cuke plants will get bigger soon. We finally had a single day of sunshine here after over 2 weeks of gloom and rain.

mike!!!! your lights need to be about one inch from those tiny plants.. for vigor ... though i presume you moved them for a pic ... and if you had sterilized your media.. you MIGHT have avoided the algae .. in worse case.. it can kill the babes ... but they will be potted up into 6 oz solo cups at 4 leaf stage.. so sterilize that media ... also.. that is a nice POTTING media you have there.. there is finer ground media.. for SEED starting ... and the way it looks like media is sticking to the sides.. above the water line.. as in it looks like Noah's flood came thru.. is there drainage in the bottom of your tray ... if not.. next spring.. save some cell packs.. to use above the water holding tray.. obviously you have success.. just making notes to go to the next level ... if you wish ... also.. some bottom heat.. might help them grow faster.. my furnace kicks down to 64 at night.. and that is not seed growing temps ... so if you have a heat mat .. and ran it.. at night.. it might make them grow faster ... presuming the furnace brings up the house temp during the day ... all complicated if you are doing this in a cold basement .... the variables: light .. water.. heat/temp ... and operating room cleanliness ... see link ... ken Here is a link that might be useful: sterilizing media in microwave or oven ... in the oven ... i used a dollar store turkey pan covered in alum foil .... with one hole in the foil.. and when it steamed .. it was done ... leave covered for a few days ... unless you want the whole house to smell of damp warm media ... i would like such.. but wifey might not ...

*Average* last frost for this area is April 15. (I remember it by thinking "evil, frosty, tax day" or whatever...) Most seeds will say things like "start indoors 6 weeks before risk of frost is gone", that kinda thing. Depends a lot on what you're growing, of course. Last year (and again this year), I'm planning to grow a nice cool-weather crop of lettuces, etc. So I'm not overly anxious to start tomatoes, squash, etc. If I started them mid March, I'd have plants way too big to handle by the time my lettuce bolts. FYI - I like to direct-sow sunflowers, cukes, beans, and squash. They come up nice & quick, and I don't have to fuss with hardening them off before planting day. Hope that helps a bit... your mileage may vary. :-)

I live about 100 miles north of San Diego and start my first seeds the last week of January and continue starting various varieties until early April. I sell tomato plants so usually start ten plants each of about 25 varieties. I only have enough room under my lights to start about 120 plants at a time so that's the reason for the spread out time period. San Diego has about the mildest weather in the U.S., some say almost perfect. It is warmer there in the winter than where I am, and cooler in the summer than where I am due to the ocean influence. So I would guess your friend could start seeds any time they wanted, or for sure when I do. I don't believe they ever get freezing temperatures there. And in the summer many people don't even use their air conditioners even if they have them. I know my daughters dorm room at UC San Diego didn't even have air conditioning.