Planting basil and getting parsley

I have a nice bucket of parsley growing in my yard. But initially I planted basil in it.

What happened is: I made some mistakes while planting and when my seeds failed to sprout, I emptied the bucket and planted some parsley instead.

Here are my mistakes:
I've filled the bucket only with sand assuming I'll have some liquid fertilizer by the time they sprout.

Next mistake was placing the seeds on top without covering them with some sand

As soon as I started watering them the seeds started to move around but they stood on top where they got direct sunlight and dried between the watering sessions.
Finally I covered the top with some leaves but the missing nutritions was still a problem

Finally I got bored of waiting and decided to replace the sand with some soil.
Now I think about it, I don't really need sand, I need organic materials in my soil