Prepare your sites late in the fall
Grow them indoors till eight inches tall

would agree with these 2 and preparing your sites in the fall is optional but is a good time if your mixing alot of soil amendments that needs time to breakdown.
wouldnt recomend anyone spending alot on seeds if you are using seedlings outdoors, as you can have a very high plant loss outdoors and a pack of ten seeds doesnt go far by the time you factor in losses from various causes and probably not a perfect germination rate to begin with, and some will be males its just not worth it unless you are vegging a mother indoors for an endless supply of clones.
if you think you are going to put out plants and hardly ever visit them you probably will come back and find no plants at all, at the very least you need to visit them until they get well established and there is no chance of local weeds smothering them out, while plants can survive very dry conditions if you want good growth and yield you will have to water occasionally in dry times and of course you will have to sex the plants so you will not have a bunch of seeds.