It has been a terrible summer, worst in years. Hang in there, it will be better (hopefully!)

Elizabeth, it is very challenging to get a garden of any size started in a new construction development where to our summer humidity, add umpteen sprinklers going to establish new lawns.

The other issue is stagnant air that favors the growth of mildew from the ground moisture of the recent rains evaporating in the heat. My garden is situated close to the house so I can run oscillating fans to move and evaporate the moist air and deal with the overnight ozone attack to tomatoes, cukes and eggplant. Square foot gardening may not be your best choice of gardening methods until you take the time to build some seriously superior soils for this climate.

Generally, at this time of year in this area veg gardeners are planting their fall crops, from mid-August onward. Deer ( I have a whole herd of does and fawns and a sixpack of bucks of varying ages) must be deterred by tall netting around your garden that is staked down to keep out not just rabbits but also turtles.

You're asking a lot from new construction soils by planting a full garden so soon.

Put some fall crop plants in large, wide and deep containers with bamboo stakes around the edges where you hang half inch grid bird netting. If your plant choices are not dependent upon flowering or pollinators, close the net over the top. For lettuces, beets/carrots, broccoli and other cole crops I cage them with old window screens to keep the critters plus the cabbage looper butterflies out. You'll have success with that while you work to build the soil in a larger more open garden area for your tomatoes, melons and squash next year.

The other thing that really impacted gardens this year was the degree of chlorination Meck Cty had to add to the water supply this hot summer.

Invest in some rainbarrels (and mosquito dunks) soon so you can catch and store better water for your plants. Start making compost from rotting wood (branches and twigs you pulverize), lawn clippings and fall leaves (preferably maple and poplar). Throw your old garden plants and dead potted plants and their soils in there. There's a forum here devoted to compost for all your questions. It's not pretty in a new construction neighborhood (a compost pile or container) and the tendency is to hide it from view. It needs sun, moisture, circulating air and tending to aerate it or it becomes anaerobic and kills off the good microbes that break it down into a rich soil amendment.

Another suggestion... To build good soil, check out the local CraigsList for offers of composted horse manure. Just last week I noticed a couple offers of free/cheap composted horse manure from various horse owners in the area. When properly composted, the manure won't smell bad. You do risk there being oat seeds or other feed seeds that could sprout if the compost did not get hot enough, but they are easy to pull out when young. Others might not have had as good luck as I did with compost, so I'm just throwing the idea out there. My soil out here east of Raleigh is quite sandy and thus won't support any desired plant life for more than a day by itself. It needs to be heavily amended with compost so it will hold some kind of moisture in these horrible 100 degree days we had this summer.

i am still learning how to garden in the south after 2 years and expect to kill many more plants before I either finally figure it out or go back up north, lol.

Hope you are not too discouraged, and keep on learning.