herb planting. little seedlings and mini greenhouses

I've always killed plants. I only have one plant that has survived the years and years of torture I've put it through. I've purchased dozens of houseplants over the years and I'd somehow kill them all. This one has stayed with me through everything. I've forgotten to water it more times than I'd like to admit. I'd find it almost fully yellow and completely wilted down. After I watered it and it would puff back up in a day or two.

When Jade moved in a told her she needed to remind me to water it. She thought I was kidding until a few weeks later she mentioned that my plant looked dead. She was even more shocked to see that it puffed back up within a day of me watering it. She calls it the zombie plant cause it keeps coming back from the dead.

Every year I've tried to plant little seeds for an herb garden and every year nothing grows. Each year the reason for my failures are different.

• I planted too late in the year. I'd plant my seeds in May when I should have started in March.
• I over-watered them. I didn't want to forget to water them and thought that more water would make them grow faster, not realizing I was drowning them instead.
• I used old seeds. I didn't realize that even if you keep you seeds in a plastic bag that they're no longer fresh one or two years later.
• I used too big of pots. Instead of starting in a small pot and transplanting them once they were nice a healthy, I tried growing them in the huge pots I wanted them to live in.
• I left them in the sun for too long. One year I had a tiny little sprout pop up and I put it in the sun to 'help it grow' and forgot about it. It shriveled into a crisp. That was my last attempt. I was sad.

It's been a few years since I've attempted to grow anything but I'm going to try my luck again. I'm going to do everything right this time. I'm starting early enough. I won't over-water it. I won't put them directly in the sun (and if I do I'll make sure it's for a very short amount of time).

I've bought a little mini greenhouse so they're not in giant pots right off the bat. I read that these help with starting plants out from seeds. It's supposed to help with keeping up the humidity and promoting growth. It sits right in the window and has it's own little cover (which is good for keeping the cats noses out). Once the seedlings have grown strong , I can then transplant them into bigger pots.

This greenhouse has room to hold 12 seedlings. I can reuse the greenhouse every year because it comes with these cool little pucks that are filled with dirt. This is where I'll plant the individual seeds. Instead of buying a new greenhouse every year, they sell the dirt pucks separate.

I've also bought fresh seeds. Twelve different kinds. One for each dirt puck. This year I'm planting:

• Sweet basil
• Catnip
• Mini bell peppers (mixed)
• Lemon balm
• Curled parsley
• Fernleaf dill
• Mint
• Chamomile
• Lavender
• Peppermint
• Spinach
• Catgrass

The mini greenhouse came with easy step-by-step directions (with pretty pictures) to help beginners like me make sure they're doing it right. There's only four steps. How can I go wrong?!

I gathered everything the instructions asked for and I was ready to begin.

The first step was to add 1.75 cups of water and watch the dirt mounds puff up.

Next I needed to pull apart the mesh around the mound so I could see the soil that's underneath.

After that it was planting time! I carefully placed three seeds of each herb in their own individual soil mounds and then lightly covered them.

And then I replaced the lid and even wrote on it which herb each one was so I wouldn't forget where I planted what.

My greenhouse is ready for indirect sunlight (I'm assuming that means shade?). Since my place is south facing, I won't be able to put this 'windowsill' greenhouse on my actual windowsill.

I'm extremely excited to see which one will sprout first! I know that catgrass takes barely any time at all so it'll probably sprout first. My guess for second is the dill. Which would you pick?