Is it hot where you are? I am in 7b and we are rarely above 100 for more than, oh, 4 days in a summer. If you are looking at heirlooms, etc., watch out for days to maturation. Some of the heirloom ones can be long. I would stick with varieties you know will produce well and quickly in your location, rather than trying something new. I have planted starts of tomatoes in mid-June and had a crop. It was 25 years ago, so I can't remember how BIG a crop, but I remember being happy with it. We don't get frost till mid-November, though.

~freshair, I just cut a top shoot from a growing plant, about 5-6 inches long, pinch out the growing tip, then remove the leaves on the last one or two leaf nodes nearest the bottom of the cutting. I dip the end going into the potting mix in rooting powder or clonex so that it covers a leaf node going into the potting mix (I'm not certain this is really necessary on this particular plant but couldn't hurt), then stick the cutting into a light dampened mix of Promix (brand name) potting mix and perlite, about 50-50. I've also just stuck the shoots into a small pot of dampened Promix (or any good quality, light potting mix). If there are large leaves on the shoot, either cut the leaves in half or pinch off some of them so the cutting doesn't lose a lot of moisture via the leaf surface. Now set a top half of a 2 liter plastic cola bottle (minus the cap) down over the pot and put them in the shade. Don't let the cuttings dry out. In a week or so you will notice new growth at the exposed leaf node. It is rare for me to have a cutting fail so I figure they are super easy. I mist the cuttings when I think about it but keeping them in the shade until they begin to put out new leaves is very important. Before I had a big butterfly enclosure to raise the little cats in, I'd take shoots from a growing MW, stick them into a block of moistened florist foam and use the MW that way to feed the little cats. They would eat those MW shoots right down to a stalk, even eating part of the stalk. If there were at least two leaf nodes left, I'd stick the lowest leaf node down into potting mix and almost everytime, it would root and grow new leaves from the exposed top leaf node. I've got some pots on my deck right now that have five or six little MW plants in each pot that were started this way. This variety of MW must have some good, strong genes! Give it a try and I think you'll find it very easy to multiply your tropical MW this way. I feel it is probably quicker than starting from seed. I have some tropical MW seed I planted a month ago and there are only two sets of true leaves on these little plants right now. Mary

Definitely cucumbers, beans, and squash can be directly seeded into the ground. In fact, I usually start a few of those indoors, 3 weeks ahead of last frost date (May 1st around here). When I put the cucumber, bean, and squash plants in the garden, I also plant some seeds farther along the row to sprout and be 3 weeks behind  this staggers the harvest, and IÂve found the plants die before the season is out, so I continue adding seeds to replace them. As for the tomatoes and peppers, you can get a decent size tomato plant in 3 weeks if you use a propagation (heating) mat and lots of light. If it were me, I'd start enough seeds for a few plants of each and then buy a couple plants that are bigger, and put them all in the garden maybe the first week in May -- conventional wisdom says plant tomatoes on Mothers Day :). The peppers will be smaller, but ultimately, everything grows outside when the soil gets warm (I use black landscaping fabric to get the soil warmer faster). Good source of propagation mat is Home Harvest Garden Supply on the web. I sent one to my brother in Gambrills and he had it in four days.

Well, bad news today, Amazon is sold out of the Opalkas.. I will call Laurel later today and see if she has any. What I would do is do a search for "Tomato Plants for Sale, Bay are, or your city or a big city nearby. Why do I suggest that? Well I did a search for Tomato Plants "Orange County Calif". I didn't turn up any nursery that had the kind of maters I wanted, so I found Laurel and ordered them all from her. I had a dentist appointment Tuesday, and on the way home, I stopped at a local Nursery, (about 10 miles from Home). They had every mater I wanted, and nice size and price too!, GRRRRRR. I did not find that nursery when I did my search because it was in LA County!!!!! With Me, I want "Instant Gratification" with my maters, and had I done a better search, they would be in my garden now!!! I'm 70 and don't have the patience, time, or wish to take the chance on something going wrong trying to plant seeds, caring for them, light heat, water, etc, transplanting them a couple times, hardening off etc etc, so I always buy live plants. Hope you find your maters! Gary