I've been gardening since I was a kid and the best thing I can tell you is to keep trying. Don't get discouraged by plants not making it, it happens. It happens to experienced gardeners too. Any success as well as failure is just an opportunity to learn something new about plants and gardening.

As far as tips, I would really suggest you find a good general gardening book - especially one that is suited for your climate. It will be valuable resource that you will go back to over and over.

As well as trying herbs from other parts of the world, you may wish to try growing a few indigenous to your location as well. Native plants are well accustomed to your climate and grow with minimal fuss and care. Not to mention that you will be able to grow things that others who live in places with snow, ice, and freezing temperatures (like me!) could never do. Enjoy!

FataMorgana

Are you growing all of your herbs in containers, or just some of them? If so, that will lend an entirely different slant on the advice we can offer! ;-)

gerapan,
I'm a container gardener in Philadelphia, PA, USA, so our zones are obviously different, and containers some times bring different results. That being said, I will tell you that I grew my chives straight from a Chia Herb Garden kit into a container that was here before we moved in in 1991. I've changed some of the soil a couple of times, just a little, and add soil each year as watering drains old soil out, but I've had those chives for 7-8 years now, and water them every day during the hot, humid summers, every other day, now that the weather is down to the 70s, and never water them in the winter. I do add Miracle-Gro about every 3 weeks in the summertime, but chives, like most herbs, aren't really fussy about their soil.

Now my dill, which started from the same kit, is just an annual, but it self-seeds so freely, it's just a matter of finding them among the containers through gardening season, then transplanting them to where I want them to grow. I've never gone out of my way for them, past what I do for my chives.

The rest are hit or miss. Head towards your local library, if you have one, and if you don't do some research online for what you want to grow. One warning about researching online -- info isn't always accurate, so you'll need to check out several sites, to see what they all say about a particular herb. If some say it needs little water and others say it needs regualr watering -- well, that's why it's best to go with books! Everyone with a web site think they are experts, and we aren't. LOL

There are two herbs (I think) that you really want to put into containers, if you want to grow them -- mints and catnip. I KNOW mints are invasive, and once you start growing them, downright impossible to stop them from spreading. That's why they should be put into a container. I'm not as sure about catnip, but, from what I've read online, sounds like that might be invasive too! (Remember, I'm NOT an expert! LOL)

My rule of thumb has been, if it didn't grow, find out what I did wrong. If I find out I did nothing wrong, I keep buying more, until it does grow, or I get bummed from the plant dying too often. Then again, except for the chives and dill, I generally go with buying little plants each year, and try and pick up enough self-seeding and periennials that I don't have to keep spending as much money year after year.

I use winter as the time to study up on gardening to improve my odds each year. Been doing this for three years now (reading books -- been gardening for over a decade, at least) and have gone from a brown thumb (almost everything dies) to a yellow thumb (50% success rate.) I figure, in another ten years I might finally get to having a green thumbm IF I keep studying! LOL

Hope I helped a little bit. You have asked a really big question to try to answer fully. Might be helpful to mention what you want to try -- that will give a starting point to others answering.