Herb Report, good and bad

One of the herb plants is in dire straits.

It's the lavender plant. I planted lavender b/c i wanted to fill the garden with fragrance. I wanted it to grow and grow into a huge bush the way things in Georgia and Florida do. I dreamt of making sachets for my own drawers and suitcases. Forget figuring out gifts for the next few years of Mother's Days and birthdays and Christmases, etc. I'd press my own essential oil, blah blah blah. Am i getting ahead of myself?

Okay, so anyway. When I brought it home, it looked like this:

That's it in the top right position, happy and blue-ish green. It smelled wonderful and fragrant.
Here it is the day I transplanted it, in the left-hand position. Look how green and happy it is. I imagined this to be a corner of the garden from which, when the wind blew, a cloud of fragrance would envelop me as I weeded. Like, you know, in Tuscany.

Well, folks, take note of something else in the top of the above photograph. The shade.
I really, really think the lavender needs more sun. Nooooottttt a lot of photosynthesis occurring in the lavendar corner. In fact, it appears to have shrunken. The pleasant bluish-green tint has turned to a dull gray. Some leaves are withered and brown. It's a sad day but I really should have dug it up and planted it somewhere else two weeks ago. In additon, according to this article, dampness can have a negative affect on this plant. Maybe those two weeks of everyday rain right after I transplanted it were no help either. Hm.

In other news, the herbs right by the lavender are doing just fine. They must like the sun/shade conditions. This photo shows the amount of sun that side of the garden gets in the afternoon:
That is the end of the day's sun . . .

The rosemary and tarragon seem to like it:
(although the rosemary is getting a bit gray itself).

The basil transplants, well, the jury is still out on them. They were doing pretty badly, sunbleached, insect-eaten, and generally raggedy since I planted them:
But today i picked off all the ugly leaves and just trimmed them back, AGAIN. Hopefully without the plants putting their energy into those big honking leaves they showed up with, they can put their energy into sending out new fresh fragrant leaves. If they don't make it, so be it.

So this is what they look like now:


Now for the other good news.

DILL!
Wow, we love dill. We put it in virtually every salad and it's required for deviled eggs. Great in scrambled eggs, too. :)

CILANTRO:

I clipped some for the kitchen this week and the remaining bunch is producing new shoots even faster. The three wee babies are coming up fast, too.

If you have good herb pictures or have seen herb garden photos elsewhere on the web or other blogs, please put the links in the comments section!!