Trimming the Sage

Either I killed it, or it will continue to flourish. Who can say? In the words of the great Enya, only thyme.

Today I harvested some sage. I should have done this a few weeks ago when it was lush and healthy. Now after a humid weekend in the garage weathering a tropical storm, it’s not doing so hot.

My hell-on-wheels herb garden. See, I should have been in product marketing. The correct term for this is “raised garden bed” or “elevated planter”, but doesn’t hell-on-wheels sound like more fun? Same with my potting bench, which truth be told is just an old painter’s bench covered in pots and containers of various shapes and sizes. Shouldn’t that be more aptly called a “potty zone”? Anyway, I digress.

I had two types of sage in here, and due to the tomatoes covering every surface it was pretty hard to tell what popped up from all the seeds my kid and I planted. We had a lot going on in this planter. In addition to the tomatoes we had carrots, radishes, marigolds, cilantro, parsley, and I’m pretty sure I saw some chives in there. Or maybe it was just some stray grass.

Our local library has a seed catalog and everyone is allowed to pick up little envelopes of seeds. I’ve taken advantage of this free seed service sponsored by our local Master Gardeners to the point where I’m always picking up a packet or two whenever we visit, and I’m pretty sure that’s where my parsley came from, as well as the lone sage plant that mysteriously appeared after I put in store bought sage starts. This lone plant was divine. Its leaves were long and thin, the scent heavenly, and we just enjoyed this herb more than the thriving sage plants next to it. The other plants’ leaves are leathery and hairy. It’s not a bad sage, it’s only that once you’ve tried the premium sage the others just aren’t as good. Well take two guesses on which plant died.

I cut back the sage plants. I didn’t realize this but it seems with both the sage and the basil the new leaves grow underneath the old mature ones.

Tons of new little leaves on this sage plant after I trimmed it, harvested and cut off dead leaves

This is the luxury sage, which I will call it that especially if the seeds came from the Rancho Mirage library we frequent – so very la-ti-dah. All of its leaves were brown except these very tiny ones. We’re still in the 100 degree summer heat so I really don’t think it will survive

My plan was to dig up these herbs and place them in another pot after they’ve had a chance to fill out again. I need to add more soil to this planter and then… I’m not sure what’s going to go in here but historically it’s done well so I’ll put something we actually want to eat.

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