I'm a forum newbie and pretty much a gardening newbie as well, and was wondering if you guys might be able to help me with a problem with my potted lavender and lemon thyme plants.

They're not potted together - the lavender has its own pot, and the lemon thyme is rooming with some lemon balm. The balm is spectacular and I haven't had a single problem with it. The thyme started out strong and grew like a mad thing, and then all of a sudden just quit growing and has been slowly turning brown on the underside for the past couple of weeks. (photo) It's just getting woodier and woodier. I used to have a regular thyme plant in a big rectangular planter with a bunch of other herbs, but it turned brown and passed away very suddenly. Not sure if the two are related.

The lavender (photo) is doing pretty much the same thing - wilting from the underside out. That's the one I'm most worried about - it's the first lavender I've ever had that I didn't murder straightaway.

We've had a wet summer here in Georgia, so much so that I finally moved what herbs I could up onto the porch to stop them from drowning. I hardly water at all unless something's wilting, but the soil's stayed pretty moist. But the pots do have good drainage, and there's been no visible insect pests. That's about as far as I knew what to look for. I thought maybe the lemon thyme didn't like the lemon balm, but that doesn't explain the lavender. I'm stumped.

Does anybody have any idea what I'm doing wrong? Everything was going well until August, and since then it's been slowly going to pot. (So to speak.)

Much appreciated, and thank you. I've been lurking around here for a while picking up tips and tricks, and you've really helped me out.

Thanks muchly!!