Things You'll Need:
- Sage seeds
- Firmly packed soil
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Step 1
Prepare a firm seed bed for your sage plants in the garden. If the soil has been freshly tilled, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommends packing down the soil before seeding. To grow sage in areas damaged by fire and chemicals, lightly disk to aerate the soil.
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Step 2
Broadcast or hand plant sage seeds over the area you have selected. Leave them on the surface or insert seeds no more than 1/8 of an inch into the soil. Do not cover with organic material. Watering is not required. The USDA says that sage is successfully cultivated "on roadsides, fields and open woodlands" and on many types of soil.
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Step 3
Plant seeds in the late summer to grow the most bountiful sage plants. Optionally, seed sage at your leisure, anytime after the frost-free date in your area has passed. Sage can tolerate Zone 5 winters unprotected.
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Step 4
Maintenance is minimal. Prune the sage back to half its size, twice a year. The Carleton College greenhouse says, "To keep the plants bushy, prune in the spring to encourage young shoots...also after flowering in late summer."
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Step 5
Remove sage plants from the garden every two to six years or when they become too woody to produce the desired amount of foliage. Saturate the root-ball with water and pull. The tap root system of the sage plant should come out easily.
