Need More Herbs!

I am a newly inspired herbalist. I just started this past summer with a few basic plants: thyme, rosemary, Spicy Globe basil and lavender. They were all so beautiful. Were. Question is, how do I multiply my few plants into more? I am afraid that we have literally eaten all of them!!! No kidding. I really didn't think that I would find them so tasty in my recipes. I attempted propagation from stems, unsuccessfully. Should I just buy the bigger plants? Or is there a way to achieve success through propagation that I lacked? Also, I have read/heard that propagation through stems or seeds is a huge time factor. Taking years? Any help you could give, I would eat up!!!

It seems to me that you should be growing your herbs from seed so that you will have enough of them. You should never harvest anything from below the bottom 6 inches of the plant. This will give the plant enough leaves and stems so that it can make enough food to grow more.
You should consult the book "Growing Herbs from Seed, Cutting & Root" by Thomas DeBaggio (available from Richters catalogue under #B4280) to find out the details of propagating from cuttings. That is certainly the fastest method for a lot of herbs. Seed propagation is slow at the start, but usually speeds up very quickly once the plantlets have germinated.
If you had one or two plants of each herb this year, increase that to 4-6 each.