Most things are growing quite well in the garden, although we aren't eating much from it at the moment because we were so bad at overlapping the harvesting of different plants. We tend to have feast and then famine, floods of beans and then nothing. We are really working on trying to stagger the planting better to prevent that problem in the future.
Little green caterpillars are attacking the broccoli leaves like crazy. They did the same last season as well. Luckily they don't eat the usable part of the plant, so we just let them go. It makes the plants look ugly but it's better than spraying them. Perhaps you have some way of getting rid of them using natural products? Does the soap and oil spray work on this little grub ? Please share a recipe if you have one.
The basil is fabulous and brings a lovely fresh flavour to past sauces. I love being able to go and grab handfuls of leaves as I need them. Before growing our own basil I used to buy a plastic wrapped pack of fresh basil from the supermarket. It would be fine for the first dish but would be soggy and lifeless when I needed it again three or four days later.
A herb garden is a great starting point if you don't already have a garden established. Even if you don't have much space, you can have a few pots of herbs growing on the front porch or even on the kitchen window sill. I use basil, shallots and coriander the most. Once you taste the fresh flavour in your food, it is hard to go back.