Sage is both a much-loved herb and a beautiful, colourful addition to the garden. When you grow sage as a herb, you are dealing with a variety that is neither demanding nor difficult to work with. It is loved in both savoury and sweet cooking, and many people also enjoy using it to flavour their tea. The biggest advantage of sage is that once you have grown it, you can enjoy it all year round – and that is certainly not a given with herbs in the Danish climate.
Different types of sage
Sage is not just sage. There are a great many different varieties, but we will mainly focus on growing the herb for cooking rather than perennial sage, which flowers and decorates the garden.
- Sage for cooking
Salvia officinalis, also known as common sage, is popular as a flavouring in both dishes and tea. The plant has green leaves all year round, and you are met by a lovely scent when the leaves are touched.
- Sage for flowering
Perennial sage flowers all summer, to the delight of garden owners who enjoy the sight of the colourful flowers. You can find them in everything from blue and white to purple and pink.
Sage in the garden – how to do it
You can plant your sage in open ground just as well as you can plant it in a raised bed, if that suits your garden best. You can choose to sow sage from seed or plant out a sage plant bought from the greengrocer or the supermarket.
- Sowing sage from seed? Fill your raised bed ¾ full with soil, and press the seeds about 1 cm into the soil. It is important to water your sage plant well, but aim for the soil to be moist rather than wet. Place your raised bed in plenty of light, and moisten the soil regularly. Your sage plant will sprout after 4-5 weeks, and after that the watering should be kept sparing.
- Planting out your sage? Plant it in a raised bed that gets plenty of sunlight during the day – preferably in early spring. Sage plants grow well, so it is best to give them plenty of space. Water it according to the weather, but never too much.
Caring for sage in a raised bed
Once your sage has established itself, it is incredibly easy to look after and get plenty of enjoyment from. If you pick sage regularly, pruning is not necessary, but if it starts to develop thick stems and grow very large, you can prune it a little. This should preferably be done just before spring, so that it can sprout again.