By PAT RUBIN, Sacramento Bee

I love running my hand across the basil as I walk through the vegetable garden. I hesitate, then breathe deeply as its spicy scent fills the air.

I can't resist breaking off a stem of oregano, then crushing the leaves and holding them up to my face so I can enjoy the powerful fragrance.

Mention gardening these days, and folks are most likely to equate it with vegetable gardening.

Just recently, that wasn't so.

Vegetable gardening had become almost passe, relegated to the back of the back yard. Declaring yourself a gardener a few years ago more often meant you had an assortment of perennials and other ornamentals.

A quick guide for making spring gardening fun and successful.

A

Amend the soil by adding a handful of compost whenever you plant.

Annuals for cutting: zinnias, cosmos, asters. All easily grown from seed. You can -- really -- toss the seeds into the garden, lightly cover with soil, water gently every couple days until the seeds sprout.