I, too have a problem with having to buy too many seeds or seedlings for my garden. My solution has been to share them with friends who like to garden. When I lived in Florida, Mom, my sisters, and I would simply split the cost. Now I have a few more dollars, but no family near-by, and I simply give them away. Herbs that were perennials in Florida and Hawaii aren't here, even thyme sometimes can't take a bad winter, and it is pretty hardy. On the other hand, I have a sage plant that is propigating itself, and I grew it from a seedling when we were on the road and I had an herb garden in a pot, then put it in the ground when we moved here. Parsley is generally biennual and I've grown it from seeds or in pots .... Many of my herbs that were perennial just couldn't hack the last couple of winters where we had -30 degrees for long periods of time. I actually managed to kill my mint this winter (yes, I did it on purpose, it was killing the rest of the herb garden), and missed having it for mint juleps this month. I thought I had it contained, but it went under a sidewalk and started killing everything. So husband and I put containers within the containers (I simply won't live without mint) and started over again. My tarragon couldn't take the hit this winter, but ironically, some cilantro came up that is easily 2 years old. My regular thyme hasn't survived the past two winters, and if I grew it from seed I'd not have any to eat because a freeze would kill such a tender young plant. Ironically, my less favorite thymes (creeping and lemon) seem to think that 35 below is OK with them.