I am not sure about your growing conditions way over there. :o) If you mean culinary herbs.... you might want to start preparing your garden... MOST culinary herbs need DRAINAGE, unless you don't get much water during the summer... and I mean NOT MUCH water... I live where it never rains in the summer... so to me, not much would be less than once a week. If you get rain once a week or more, you'd want to make a high drainage situation, like a raised bed.
Herbs don't need a lot of fertilizer, but if the garden soil has a lot of humus, that would help with drainage and make the plants happy.

Hey! I'm here in southeastern North Carolina as well and can tell you my herb garden is doing well. I have sweet basil, greek basil, lettuce leaf basil and cinnamon basil, pineapple sage, pineapple mint, orange mint, chocolate mint, spearmint, peppermint, line mint, Kentucky Colonel mint (you GOTTA get some of this...smells so sweet and strong, like a stick of Wriggley's gum!), three different kinds of rosemary, two different kinds of sage, oregano, hot-n-spicy oregano, lemon thyme, english thyme, silver-edged thyme, golden-edged time, red creeping thyme, lavendar, cilantro and italian flat-leaf parsley.

They all do well in the backyard. But all my plants are in LARGE containers. The soil in the backyard has too much clay in it and is not good for drainage. The plants seem to love their new homes (they all grew from seedlings, except cilantro which I grew from seed).

I do have great drainage, my soil has a good bit of sand in it. I'm not worried about a lot of fertilizer, there isn't anything you can put in this dirt that don't grow. I also use chicken manure for a little fertilizer in my compost. My biggest worry is the sun is hot, hot, hot here in the summer. Where I would like to put my garden is where it beats down from morning to early evening. Is it possible to have too much sun on the herbs? We also get a good bit or rain, and if not I am on well water so even in a drought they can's restrict what I water. I read somewhere to line the garden with rock, and then top soil. Will it be worth doing that for them or just a really good top soil layer?

Thanks!

for culinary herbs, you won't need to worry about it. Really, herbs used to be weeds... they have been genetically modified over time to prefer lean soil. Sun won't be a problem... with your humidity, you don't have the UV that we do in the west, they will love full sun... all but basil and mints, which might prefer some shade. You can tell if you have sufficient drainage by digging a hole and pouring water in it. If the water sits there for more than an hour, you don't have good drainage. I have clay, I can pour water in the hole and it will be there in the evening! :o(

All my herbs get morning sun and full sun until around 5 pm, when the sun starts to go behind the house and the house casts a shadow over the garden. So, they have that hot NC summer sun beating down on them, and they've been thriving. Just making sure they stay hydrated is the thing here. But the humidity is always high and the dewpoint keeps the air saturated. Well, if you're in NC, I don't have to explain that one. You've felt the sauna when you step outside.

LOL, sorry for those not in NC, I'm laughing at gborosteve and his sauna, the weather report is 100 plus for the next few days, and yeah, gotta love the humidity. Needless to say I'm not working ANY gardens this week.

LOL! I'm laughing with you...better than crying. The heat and humidity is SO oppressive here, isn't it? Just like you're own sauna, only not so private. Can't wear just a towel outside...well, you can...but the neighbors stare.
Trimming up my mints is about as far as I'm going this week with the garden. They are way overdue and are about to drive me nuts. I went mint crazy....chocolate mint, orange mint, lime mint, spearmint, peppermint, Kentucky Colonel mint, apple mint. They are so lush though, I hate cutting them back.