I've got rosemary, oregano, thyme, and mints in pots too. All of mine do fine through the winter (I'm in s.e. Wake Co). I can harvest from rosemary and thyme throughout the winter and a sometimes a little oregano (but I usually just use it dried because it's easier). My mints are in pots sunk in the ground to attempt to contain them and they die back during the winter. I usually keep my pots in a somewhat sheltered spot up against the house to keep them a little warmer. If it gets really cold (teens - low 20's) I throw a floating row cover over them. I'd just dry the sage. It takes up less space that way. And sage holds it's flavor well dried. I save freezer space for basil, cilantro, parsley, and chives.

That's a lot of knees all squished in with the table supports! Also, I used to have an octagonal table like that, and you really couldn't seat people comfortably for meals on the corners. If you think of the banquette as kid seating, you can squeeze more of them in, but they're going to grow. Given the size of the bow, however, you're probably occupying the least amount of floor space that way. One thing you can do to maximize it is to have the banquette curved, rather than following the angles of the bow. You can squeeze more kids in that way. :) You could do a combo too, with the cushion support and cushion curved but the base angled. That might get you four on the banquette, or even five if they're little and don't have HE TOUCHED ME problems. Also, you could extend the end of the banquette all the way to the door on the left, even though it wouldn't be symmetrical. So...how formal is your dining room? Is it a proper room, or one of those little ones that hold six people that they throw in to be able to advertise that it's a dining room? Because, especially when your folks are over, it might be a lot easier just serving in there. Perhaps a better alternative (though I'm not in a position to figure out the exact measures and angles) would be to put in an oval table with leaves and be willing to block the doorways when you put one in for extra seats. You could push it more toward the window if you had chairs there, and pull it out for seating. That seems like a very make-do kind of solution, though. As to the rest of the kitchen, you have a basic L with island, which almost always works. Things are arranged efficiently enough to work fine. For optimum use, I'd shift the sink over toward the fridge, with some room on the end for landing. That would make fridge to sink easier, and get you away from tush to tush between the sink and stove. That's not crucial, and you might prefer the visual symmetry of having them lined up. There's only one thing bugging me about your plan (barring the problem of trying to make eight people comfortable in your window bow): Those supports, or whatever you call them, on either side of a gas stove. That's very confining. I know it's a popular look, but you have to cook in a cave that way, and you can't just set something down by a pot. If you're straining soup, you have to pull a heavy pot around those and over to your bowl. If you have a ladle, you have to put it down on the other side of the uprights. There's no room, except over the heat, to reach the pots in the back to stir, season, etc. But most important, if you have a boil over, a fire, or some similar mishap, you can't just grab the pot and push it off the stove. You have to reach--potentially across another burner--and LIFT the pot out while something bad is happening. Similarly, you don't have side access with a lid, fire extinguisher or box of baking soda. Be really sure that's something you want to live with and cook with, and you've felt what's it's like moving big heavy pots (which I assume you have with regularly feeding eight at a time), and stirring them.

I'd suspect there were other issues involved. Seasonally mine go through 4 to 5 months of hot weather with no rain or watering. They'd probably like some water during that time but they don't show any significant adverse effects. They also flower during that dry period.

In the UK David Austin seems to have a 15% off sale at the start of each season, I don't know if the US version also has sales but if they do the next one should be sometime during summer.