Herb Garden Tip: Grow and Use Berggarten Sage

Sage is a great herb to have in your garden for culinary use and for its color and fragrance, but I particularly like growing Berggarten sage. Berggaten sage is a particularly good herb plant to go from the kitchen to the garden with because it flourishes in both environments. It is also the type of sage that I prefer to use in my cooking because the flavor in this variety is particularly strong.

Here are a few tips that I have learned to grow a successful crop of Berggarten sage every year and how to use it in your own kitchen.

Growing Berggarten Sage
I prefer to start my Berggarten sage indoors in the winter and then add them to my herb garden outside. Of course, you can always add the sage outside immediately and add them to flower or perennial gardens in addition to an herb garden. Berggarten sage is easy to grow from seed, but it is going to be a while before your plant is ready to be used in the kitchen so I like to start with a small plant and repot it in my kitchen.

The straggly look and size of the sage plant makes it easy to keep on your kitchen windowsill without needing to constantly repot with larger and larger pots. Make sure that any pot that you place the sage in or garden that you add it to is well drained and not too rich in nutrients because that will change the way the herb tastes.

Caring for Your Plant
Sage grows best in well drained soil with thin soil where it does not have to compete with other flowers or weeds. To cut down on weeding and watering, mulch the area around your sage plants well, this also deters slugs which I have found like attaching themselves to my sage plants. There have been a couple instances when my sage has not flourished outside, staying small in size with few new leaves forming, I have transplanted my sage plant to a sunnier location.

Harvest and Using
Once your plant is well established and showing more growth, it is time to start harvesting and using the sage-- my favorite part. With sage you just want to pinch off the largest leaves when you are ready to cook with them. If you are not using the sage regularly in the kitchen it is necessary to cut the plant back a couple times during the summer in order to encourage continual growth on your sage plant.

When I am not ready to use the fresh sage in the kitchen I trim a few inches off my plant and dry the leaves for later. I do not recommend freezing this particular herb because it gets bitter fast and does not add anything good to your cooking. Dried and fresh Berggarten sage is great when cooking meat, vegetables or sautéing.