Bitten by the gardening bug!

I've always had a quiet love for plants, and for many years have wanted my own garden. I've tried several times to get one going, or even just have a few pot plants around the house... but they have rapidly shown me, time and time again, that my thumb isn't even brown... it's BLACK! Or so I thought. I can't even remember what set things off this time, but first I planted some of the (expired!) tomato, capsicum, and basil seeds that had been sitting around in the cupboard for years, untouched. A month later and I was getting ready to give up and just throw them out when I spotted several little hints of green. Something was growing!! And that was it! Next thing, there's a flurry of buying pots, potting mix, seedlings, root blast, etc, and I've got a small vegetable and herb container garden started... all because some seeds managed to sprout! So I was still thinking that this was probably a lot of money that was just basically getting thrown away, considering my previous attempts at trying to keep any kind of plant alive.
Over the last month I've watched both my little seedlings and my garden grow... and I've become thoroughly addicted! I never ever thought I would get THIS obsessed with gardening! Before, all my spare $$ were going on my craft addiction, but in this last month it's been ALL about the plants! There's barely been any crafting done as I've usually got my nose buried deep in gardening books, or I'm at a gardening shop (it's rather dangerous having one of those right across the road I tell ya!), or I'm out there planting more stuff.
The back deck is slowly being taken over, and the "garden" now contains: Parsley, Rosemary, Mint, Pizza Thyme, Basil, Chives, Tomatoes, Cucumber, Zucchini, Eggplant, Capsicum, Lavender, and Marigolds. The Cucumber and the single "Sweet 100s" cherry tomato plant (that I bought as a seedling) are already "fruiting"... never thought I'd be calling baby veges CUTE! All of the "Grosse Lisse" tomato plants (again, bought as seedlings) are flowering, (except for the one I had to remove as the leaves were going yellow and the whole plant was wilting and refused to recover), along with the capsicums. The Marigolds and lavender are growing extra blooms, the chives and basil are growing madly no matter how often I take bits to use in cooking (DAMN but I LOVE this being able to use my own home-grown herbs for my meals thing!!), and I'm just falling more and more in love with gardening! I'm even wanting to start getting a small fruit and flower garden going, both again being container gardens, as we don't have much in the way of garden space we're actually allowed to plant in here.
With so many types of potting mixes, plant foods, etc out there, it's been hard trying to work out which ones to go with, but I've started with Tui's Vegetable potting mix, and been doing well with that, so thinking I may stick with their products for most things. So many things to learn with gardening... potting mixes, foods/fertilisers, types of plants, diseases, companion planting, etc.. it makes my head swim! So far I've been trying to keep things as "Organic" as possible, which means I've been trying to bring companion planting into it wherever I can. The "marigolds with everything" rule I've come across in a couple of the gardening books is one I've been working with... so there are gorgeous splashes of yellows, reds, and oranges throughout almost all of my vege tubs now. Never knew there were so many different colours of marigolds before! Also hoping to add pansies and sweet peas too for a bit of variety.

I'm very much looking forward to continuing this journey now it's started, and I will be sharing regular photos and updates of my garden, as well as any good tips, ideas, recipes, etc I find along the way. :o)