The Zucchini are dead

Summer gardening in Georgia is hard. With the terrible heat and the sporadic rain, plants don't know how to thrive. 

About 5 weeks ago, I planted some zucchini from seed. I only had one large pot and I thought I'd try to plant something to grow. I had bought some heirloom seeds from a company several years ago and wondered if they still might come up. So I planted them in the pot, watered it with care and waited. Within a week, little seedlings were popping up everywhere. 

Over the next month, the plants begin to thrive and get bigger. I was excited hoping that I would get some zucchini squash this year without having to buy them at the store. In the past whenever I tried to grow squash, squash bugs would get in and ruin the plant. It was very frustrating. This year that hasn't been the case but there has been another issue. 

It's been extremely hot this summer, hotter than I remember from past summers. I've had to water the plants more often and usually an hour or two after watering, the plants look wilted from the heat. The next day, I'll water them again, and they spring up. I've been hopeful and carefully watching the plants to see what would happen. 

Over the past couple of days, we've had some unexpected torrential downfalls. It has soaked my plants, pelting them with hard rain. The zucchini looked wilty and unhealthy so I decided to just yank them up. I was tired of dealing with them. I was sad because I felt like I'd wasted time and energy on the plants but realized I had some other seeds. 

Today I planted some red and green leaf lettuce. It's supposed to germinate more quickly and hopefully, it will be able to thrive despite the terrible weather conditions. If not, I'll just dig them up and wait till next year to plant something again. 

Since we have an inground sprinkler system, we haven't wanted to dig in the yard for fear of hitting the pipes. That has caused us to find other ways of growing. I'm hoping to get some above ground planting boxes next year, but this year I only had one large pot. If we didn't have the sprinkler system, I would have already planted in the ground and had a large garden, but cest la vie.