I don’t know about the South, but here on the west coast we have a pretty hot peak summer which isn’t very productive and I’ve lost a lot of plants to it, both edibles and ornamentals. I try to get a growing season in before it peaks, and then another one in during our long autumn. It’ll be lovely here until late November. But right now I’m entering that sort of dead zone where the sun just blasts anything vulnerable and it’s no fun being outside.