You all probably know that we have our own little garden on our kitchen window sill. The very first herbs we planted were sage and lemon balm. One pot per plant. After two weeks we planted more herbs: more sage and lemon balm and some mini tomatoes. Soon, we noticed that the sage we planted later grew much quicker than the sage we planted first.

So called sage 1

During the summer we have observed our sage pots closely. The sage, or should I say “sage”, that we planted first (in the white pot) looks totally different from the other one (in the yellow pot)! It has long stem and small leaves with sleek edges. The real sage has much larger leaves that are furry and have round serrated edges. There hasn’t been much other kind of action in the “sage” pot, but lately small new leaves have been peeking the air next to the “sage”. And the new leaves look just like the real sage’s leaves! This is very bizarre because all the sage seeds are from the same sachet. Apparently there were one or two stowaway seeds among the sage seeds.

Real sage

Today I took the “sage” pot and looked and smelled the leaves of the unknown plant. Katja told me to pull off the “sage”. Once I grabbed the stem and pulled, the whole contents of the pot followed. The alien plant couldn’t be removed without dismantling the whole dirt clod. So, we decided to leave the “sage” in its place because it looks quite nice as it is. After I put the pot back on the window sill, I noticed a strong scent of something familiar. I smelled my fingers. Oregano! Alive and kicking oregano! Yeah, it can be something else too, but it sure smells like oregano. We’ll let the “oregano” be and grow in the sage pot for the rest of the summer. In addition, we have observed that oregano seems to be stronger plant than sage.

So called sage 2

Update: Title of this post got an indefinite article.