Hey, neighbor. You sound like one of the smarter newbies to me. Welcome to gardening & these forums! If you don't mind my asking, why are you limited to containers? The way I approach herbs is to decide which ones I like and want, then find out how/when to grow them.

Basil is about the easiest-to-grow herb I've tried. If you like it, see if you can find a plant or 2 already growing for this year. I started seeds outside in Feb. and they were ready to plant in April.

Rosemary is another easy one that is a perennial, and an evergreen. I don't have any experience keeping one outside in a pot, just in the ground, so hopefully someone else will tell you about that. You can bring the pot inside, but I don't think that's necessary with rosemary in zone 8.

Most garden-related stuff is dependent on your climate. Climates are divided into gardening zones. You can find your zone here, which is probably zone 8. If you include your zone and state in your profile info, it will show up next to your name automatically when you say something on these forums. That will allow people to better know what kind of advice to give you. Most people include their state, too. The "8b AL" next to my name means I'm in zone 8b, in Alabama.

Thanks! I've seen different maps that put me in different zones but apparently I'm right on the line between 7b and 8a...about halfway between Atlanta and Macon. I guess Alabama is about the same as GA when it comes to the crazy variations in climate.

I'm not necessarily limited to containers, but the ground in my yard is about 3 parts rock to 1 part baked GA clay. It's pretty bad when even weeds won't grow! I'm also in a rental house and the landlord isn't too keen on me plowing up the backyard to put in a garden so I started playing around with containers and it just took on a mind of its own. We have deer and wild boars (and wild boys) and who knows what else in the back so I've got my garden in the front and the neighbors are constantly complimenting me on my beautiful flowers. They're shocked to find out what they are. I actually have strawberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumbers, peppers, and corn growing in pots and rubbermaid tubs around the yard. If there's anything that will grow in this ground, I'm not opposed to it, just haven't gone there yet. If I renew my lease and stay here another year, I'm going to try to talk the landlord into letting me either till a small garden or put in a couple of raised beds for next year. I'm afraid I'll need to fence them in though to keep children and other trampling pests out and then it just seems like a bigger and bigger project. Also, my kitchen opens up to the back patio so it would be convenient to put herbs in containers out there and my cousin said she has one of those portable greenhouse things that she'll give me if I want it so I might even be able to keep some stuff going all winter. Trying not to get too ambitious! :)

I definitely want basil - in the garden centers I've checked they have sweet basil and cinnamon basil and thai basil but I cook a lot of Italian (and will hopefully have a lot of tomatoes this fall and next summer!) so from my reading I think Genovese is what I need...or another variety? Chives (particularly garlic chives), mint, lavender, chamomile, and echinacea are some things I've been thinking about. I use rosemary and oregano a lot. I use Cilantro some and am definitely looking forward to some homemade salsa so that would be nice. I'm also interested in learning more about herbal remedies and medicinal herbs but I've got a long way to go with that.

I have the two pickiest children in the world and since my divorce, I've kind of gotten lazy about cooking. It's just not worth the effort and expense for me to cook food just to throw it away (and they are STUBBORN about it...these two will stare at it till it rots rather than take two bites just to try it!) I'm realizing now that we're in a total rut...the food we eat is at least somewhat healthy, but it's boring. Since we started growing a garden here and at Grandma's house, my oldest has been a lot more adventurous about trying the food he raises and I'm remembering how much fun it is to try out new recipes so I'm not above growing something that sounds interesting and then figuring out what to do with it. This year's garden has been such a learning experience for all of us!