it's great that i found this thread!
we also started gardening around march this year.
we started with some cacti and succulents - sadly, all our succulents died; up to now, we don't know what caused it. our cacti are still alive and well :-)
we also have 2 small vines that have grown pretty well
then we have herbs (we grow them all in pots):
1) sweet basil - the best one we have are those that we bought from a local nursery. they have grown well in a spot on our balcony that gets morning sun and afternoon shade.
2) thai basil - we put it together with the sweet basil and they also do well with just morning sun and afternoon shade.
3) genovese basil - we grew these from seeds we bought from an organic farm in the u.s. during our vacation. they're doing well in the same place as the full grown sweet and thai basils
4) dill - we got it from the grocery store; it looks like it's at the end of its life cycle now but it lasted about 3 months; we grow this by our sunny window.
5) oregano - we got this from the grocery store as well; this is doing better than dill and has many small branches now after 3 months; we grow this by our sunny window
6) rosemary - it's growing slower than the other herbs but it's going strong; we grow this by our sunny window
7) thyme - also doing well; we grow this by our sunny window
mint - this plant is very easy to maintain and grows anywhere you put it; it's also by our sunny window but gets a little less sunlight than our other plants; it still thrives though and gives such a nice scent even if you just brush it with your hand
9) chili - we grew from seeds and is doing well together with the basils
we also have a miniature rose that we grow by our window. at first we thought it would die because it's leaves just started falling and all the flower buds just turned brown. we pruned it and cut off all the dead buds and now there are 2 new buds on it :-)
just a tip on growing from seeds:
we found this while googling how to best grow herbs from seeds. we used paper towels/tissue paper and a ziplock bag. you wet the paper towels/tissue paper. make sure to squeeze out any excess water. place the seed on one side of the paper towel then fold over the other side of the paper towel over the seeds. place the paper towel with the seeds in a ziplock bag and put it in a warm place. give it about 2-3 days, nearly all the seeds will be sprouting then they'll be ready to transplant into seed trays :-)
