Sage

Planting window

When to sow, by microclimate — foggier blocks run a different calendar than sunnier ones.

Sunlight

How well it does at each level of direct sun per day.

Soil depth

Root room it needs — useful for sizing raised beds and containers.

Soil pH

The soil acidity it grows best in — most crops sit just below neutral, so this mostly matters for heavily amended or long-reused beds.

Spacing

Room each plant needs — along the row and between rows — for sizing beds.

Growth habit

The shape it makes in the bed and how tall it gets — what tells you whether to give it a trellis, a stake, or just room.

Habit

Upright

Mature height

1–2 ft

Stands on its own; the tallest types appreciate a stake in wind.

Growing in containers

Whether it does well in a pot, planter, or window box — the SF balcony-and-deck question, weighing its footprint, form, and staying power, not just root depth.

Happy in a pot, planter, or window box — no garden bed required.

How to start it

Sow it where it grows, or raise it under cover and set it out — and how far ahead to start the seedlings if it's the latter.

Usually

Transplant

Goes in as a rooted start, cutting, or division rather than raised from seed.

Getting started

How it goes in the ground — how deep to sow or set it, and the soil temperature it needs to wake up. The cold-soil floor is the real limiter for direct-sowing in a foggy SF spring.

Started from

From seed

Ideal soil temp

59°F

Sow depth

0–0.125 in

Time to emerge

10–14 days

Watering & feeding

How thirsty and how hungry it is — the water it wants and how much feeding the bed needs to keep it producing. In the fog belt even a thirsty crop drinks less than it would inland.

Water need

Low

Gets by on less — water deeply, then let it dry out between; forgiving of a missed day.

Feeding

Light feeder

Undemanding — good soil is plenty; a rich, fed bed does more harm than good.

A drought-tolerant Mediterranean herb — water sparingly and let the soil dry between; it dislikes wet feet. Needs little to no feeding.

Pests & diseases

What tends to trouble this crop — what it is, what you'll see, and what to do about it, least-toxic first.

Our sources document no specific pests or diseases for this crop; it's generally grown without major pest trouble in home gardens.

Harvest & storage

How to tell it's ready to pick, and how to keep it once it's in.

Keeps

DaysBest eaten within a few days of picking.

Ready to harvest

Harvest lightly the first year, then take leaves any time — best in the morning once the dew has dried, and before flowering for drying.

Storing

Fresh leaves keep four or five days refrigerated in a paper towel and bag; sage also freezes and dries well.

Culinary use & nutrition

What it's for in the kitchen, and the nutrients a 100 g raw serving is a notable source of.

Pollinators & wildlife

What this crop offers the garden's wildlife once it flowers — often the payoff for letting a bolting plant stand.

Bees

Honeybees and natives — bumble, mason, and sweat bees — working the flowers for pollen and nectar.

Butterflies

Adult butterflies nectaring, and in some crops the leaves their caterpillars grow up on.

Beneficial insects

Hoverflies, lady beetles, and parasitoid wasps that keep aphids and caterpillars down.

Hummingbirds

Anna's hummingbird, here year-round, after the deeper tubular flowers.

The widest reach of any crop here: let the lavender-blue spikes open and bees and butterflies work them steadily, hoverflies among them, with a hummingbird occasionally probing the tubes.

Companion planting

What grows well nearby, and what to keep apart.

No research-backed companion pairings for this crop — folk pairings without evidence are left out on purpose.

A handy cole-crop companion: interplanted with thyme among Brussels sprouts, sage cut diamondback moth numbers in greenhouse trials.

Sources