Spots on My Apples: organic herb garden

I recently told you about my organic herb garden. It's a new project of mine- a testing ground for the big project, my organic vegetable garden. Well, so far so good. For the most part, all is going well. My basil (most of it) is growing like crazy. My chives, dill and thyme are equally proliferous. But my cilantro? Not so much.

I have followed watering directions, moved it around to different spots for more or less sunlight, and done everything short of singing to it. It's gone completely limp and does not appear to be growing.

I have noticed that there are always gnats or some kind of tiny flying insect buzzing around. Then I noticed that there was this fungus popping up in all of my potted plants. The basil pot has even had a few mushrooms sprout up (which I immediately picked and discarded). I thought perhaps this was the problem, but as I said all the other plants are coming along swimmingly.

See the brownish white bits? I'm just at a loss. I plan on getting some worm poop from my dad this week. Maybe that would help? I'm desperate. I publicly announced my determination to develope a green thumb only last month. Losing my first plant already would be truly dreadful.

Any readers with green thumbs please help. Impart your organic gardening wisdom via comment and help me save the cilantro!

I want so badly to have a green thumb, and over the past three years I have gotten better. I have actually managed to keep an average of 70% of my plants alive (as opposed to my past record- about 95% actually shrivelling at my touch.) My gardening skills seemed to start improving when I got pregnant in 2006. (Think that's a coincidence?) The houseplants I received when Eibhlinn was born are still thriving. (Another big success for me.) I am now in the process of planning my organic vegetable and fruit garden, but before I make that leap I want to make sure I have what it takes- that two months out I won't be left with nothing but dirt and weeds.

I have some sage on my patio that miraculously survived the winter and is growing like crazy, so I thought I would try my hand at an herb garden first. I use a lot of herbs in cooking and usually end up buying dried because organic fresh can get pricey. I always have so much left over that then just rots in my produce drawer.

I picked up some basil, cilantro and dill last week. Today I planted Thyme (smells delicious) and chives. So far so good! I have a wonderful large, deep window in front of my sink that offers the perfect light and space for all of my tiny pots. I hope this little experiment goes well, because as much as I like the idea of growing my own organic goods, I love the look of them more!