So we got mint and basil at a Trader Joes - we transplanted the Lemon Thyme outside and moved those two in. The Basil ended it’s stay this morning - between the cold weather, losing half it’s root mass, and being transplanted it was really wilty and not drinking up water (had some mold in soil). Moved the Lemon Thyme back in it’s place as it’s a much hardier plant - survived some snow and frost outside and had some new growth just in a few days of being in the Pico. The rosemary has some slight brown spotting on it, but it went through some aggressive pruning and root loss and seems happy overall.
So yeah, Basil really likes warm weather (talking to my mom in Phoenix, AZ whose basil plants think it’s too cold there in the winter lol).
early happier days for the Basil:

One question - we put a little bit of stones in the bottom of two of the picos as that’s a common way of dealing with drainage (my partner knows way more about plants than I do, my main contribution is cable management heh). Does that interact poorly with the wicking system? Should it just be soil all the way down?