I am in North Carolina and my suggestions are:
Parsley should do well started end of August although several butterflies like to eat it as caterpillars before turning into lovely butterflies. I grow it for them and for cooking with it.
It's pretty late in the year to start growing tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, they all like summer heat especially peppers.
Yes to starting lettuce seeds now which will be happy in cooler fall temps.
The big choice in bagged soil is to pick "potting" type for raised beds. If a bag is really heavy it's not potting mix, find that and your plants will put roots out much better. To save money I fill my large containers with garden soil in the bottom and put potting mix on top.
Find your local co-operative extension (there are 110 in NC) and they will have a calendar showing what crops do well in which months.
Have fun!
https://www.ces.ncsu.edu/search-resu...calendar+crops