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You could try using a Garlic Spray on your herbs. It washes off, so your herbs won't taste of garlic, but it IS effective against a range of beasties, including snails. GARLIC SPRAY: Soak 1/2 cup crushed garlic cloves in 1/2 cup vegetable oil for one week. Add a little liquid soap and dilute the mixture - 1 part mixture to 10 parts water. Garlic spay will kill and repel aphids, woolly aphids, bean fly, stink bugs, crickets, grasshoppers, red spider mite, sawfly larvae, scale, snails, slugs, thrips and caterpillars, mosquitoes and ticks, the adult moths of leaf-miners and mealy bugs. It is an effective fungicide when used 3-4 times a week against potato blight and damping off. OR *Crush 100g garlic, 2 chillies and 2 onions and cover with water for 24 hours. Strain and add enough water to make up 2 litres. Put a little bran in the area, and use it as a bait. They'll head for it, eat it and die, and being all in one place, they'll be easier to pick up and dispose of. Use human or pet hair (see your local friendly hairdresser or vet!), or wood ashes, or soot, or sawdust as a mulch in the pots. Slugs and snails will avoid travelling over those things! Snails usually prefer fairly dark, cool and dampish conditions - are you sure this area is suitable for your herbs?

My basil looks sad right now but the perennial thymes, Oregenos and lavender looks good. Rosemary is pretty reliably perennial (every few years it may get killed) against the south side of the house. Stevia and lemon verbena look great too but they won't make it through winter.

Have you investigated the SEED EXCHANGE forum for seeds that might interest you? It's my understanding that there are quite a few people who participate successfully and safely over there. I would never choose to buy seeds or plants from an overseas ebay vender. Tomato Lover, your example is a perfect example of why. Overseas shipping of seeds and plants is fraught with the potential of introducing insect pests, diseases, and unwanted invasive species. Judging by the many problems seen with ebay shipments just here in the gardenweb proves to me that there is little to no inspection going on. That's scary to me.