Lyn they certainly look ready to "take off"!!! Surely though they can wait another week or so!! These guys seem to recover pretty quickly from most things! (although with that said, I have had losses - I just figure its part of life!!)
For your full sun area - sunflowers, yucca, agave (there are some interesting new hybrids that I've seen!) all of which survive around me here in my zone 7 (although I think my zone is currently an 8 with global warming!
)
Once you have things growing in the bricked bed - you can plant semps or sedum around the base of things, where they'll get some shade!
