Sage is NOT an annual, but is easily started from seed. It will grow into a nice little shrub for you. However, you will NEVER use a whole packet of seeds so purchasing the plant is okay too. Chives - buy the plant. Chives are a biennial, and will stay in your garden forever if you let them come clear up to flower heads once in a while. Parsley - these seeds take forever (30+) days to germinate...buy the plants. NEVER plant Rosemary seeds. They only have a 20% or less likelihood of germination. Buy your seeds from a GOOD company, Burpee or some such and use them up in the year intended...If you have some left, find an isolated spot in the yard and dump them all together at the end of the season. The birds may eat them, or carry them off or whatever. Just turn them over to God and see what happens...someday you may come across a little clump of Sage alongside an otherwise barren stretch of road and take credit for it! Now lets take them in order: BASIL.. Sweet basil is easy to grow and the seeds are available everywhere. It is essential for making pesto and every sort of Italian sauce. I plant sweet basil among the tomato plants, but it also is a good companion plant to asparagus. In the herb garden, remember that sweet basil grows to be 1 1/2-2 tall. For a richer basil flavor, pinch off the flowers when they form. Plant the seeds directly into the garden. BTW, Opal Basil is a rich purple color, and a nice border to the flower garden. OREGANO..Origanum Vulgare...plant a bunch and thin to a dozen or so plants...cut often and dry for wintertime pizzas. Again, trim the flowers for a richer flavor. MARJORAM...same species, different family. Origanum Majorana, same rules apply, but I dont use nearly as much. DILL...one that grows tall and leggy, and you can let it flower. Dill plants can grow to be 3-4 in height. The flower heads have as delightful a flavor as the leaves. Even the seeds can be crushed for a rich dill flavor. Many dill pickle recipes call for whole flower heads in each jar. The name..Anethum graveolens. Dill is a great companion plant for cabbage, lettuce and anyone in the onion family..including chives and garlic...great annual plant. Seeds are a snap, no need to buy plants. CHIVES..a biennial. Buy clumps at the supermarket, Fruit stand, or nursery. Snip off the tops when needed to add to sour cream for potatoes or salad dressings. Snip on buttered new potatoes or anything needing just a hint of onion flavor....Let them grow to flower and use the heads in white vinegar to make delicate pink herb vinegars for Christmas gifts. GARLIC...buy a garlic NOW in the store and break into individual cloves. Plant each clove and they will grow to look like chives, but taste like garlic when snipped. The green part lends a subtle garlic flavor without being overpowering. Try to select a garlic with some green showing and plant them with the green up in loamy dirt. In the autumn, a new garlic bulb will appear where your tiny clove once was...Pull up, braid the stems and dry for winter use. SAGE...plant where you would like a small shrub..maybe 2 tall...and cut and dry some leaves in the fall to flavor the dressing for your Thanksgiving turkey. (do not plant near cucumbers) Helps carrots and rosemary grow. ROSEMARY...one of my favorite herbs. A tender perennial, rosemary needs to be potted up and brought in over the winter. These things grow into small trees in the Holy Land and Morocco. Buy at the nursery and treat with TLC and you will be rewarded with tiny blue flowers in June. Supposedly these flowers were white until the Holy Mother hung her blue robe on a rosemary shrub during the Flight into Egypt. From then on, rosemary flowers were blue in Her Honor. Rosemary for remembrance is a Shakespearean tradition. PARSLEY Buy curly parsley plants...Petroselinum crispum. It is a biennial and will self seed if you let it...and the parsley bed can be self perpetuating. Also plant flat Italian Parsley if you like. It is useful, but not nearly so pretty. THYME Thymus Vulgarus looks alot like marjorma and oregano, but there are a jillion pretty decorative thymes...Plant some in a semi-shady area where you need a ground cover and you will be rewarded with a fragrant and useful carpet of herbs. MINT...I like Spearmint the best...Menthus Spicata. It grows under the hose spigot beside the back porch...makes great teas and juleps. Buy a plant or two and put in a shady, damp area...it will come back each year and grow more and more dense. Mint can stand shade! LEMON BALM. Melissa Officinalis. Lovely low shrub perennial. Rich lemony fragrance. Makes grand teas and scents the whole yard when you catch a few bits in the lawnmower when you mow.