Beginner Gardening: My plants are dying! Help me!, 1 by erinmg85

erinmg85 wrote:
I've always had a very non-green thumb... but I keep trying anyway! I've just moved to an apartment with a little balcony planting area. It was full of very healthy weeds when I arrived, but I wanted to grow some herbs and flowers. I've been planting those, using just the dirt that was already there, plus whatever dirt the plant comes with. I really have no idea what's at the bottom of the planting area. It's concrete, but I don't know how deep (there is at least one foot of dirt). Anyway, my plants look really bad, and I don't know if I'm overwatering, or underwatering, or what... it rains a little bit every few days. Please take a look at my pictures and help me! The basil has been hanging on for several weeks now, but the flowers were just planted last Saturday and looked great when I bought them.

A couple more notes... there are some ants living in the dirt, I think... also, when I arrived it was quite rainy and all the weeds were doing well. It's been more sunny and dry recently, and all the weeds died. So maybe underwatering? But I read about overwatering, and it looks like that too... the dirt does seem very dry on the surface though. Thanks!