Sage & mint & pumpkin

Hi all.  Just a quick question about my sage.

I have a large pot of it in my garden and every year it flowers.  Each year I mean to pick out the flowers before they show, but always forget etc.

Once it's flowered the leaves are rubbish and that's it done for the season, whereas before it's flowered, then it's lovely, bushy, taking over the whole pot.

My question is, should I be removing the flowers.  I have been this year and putting them in the chicken run, they love them.  More and more just seem to be coming though.  I'm worried that it'll put more energy into producing new buds then it would have if I'd just let it flower.  Am I doing the right thing?  It is beautiful when it flowers, but it's there for eating not prettiness!

Then my mint.  It was one of the supermarket pots and I stuck it in my window box (inside) earlier on in the year.  It did great, killed everything else and took over. 

About a month ago I put it outside into the same pot as the replanted Bay.  The bay is doing fab, the mint, not so much.  It's starting to put out new leaves now, but it is so feeble looking.  Should I give up and just get some more, give it some time or what?  I've never managed to kill mint before, but this is the closest I've come.

Finally.  How long do pumpkin seeds take to germinate indoors on a window sill with a clear lid?  I potted 2 with my daughter a couple of weeks ago.  The sunflowers done the day before are 6" now.  It's just them cheapo pots with the seeds and compost included from the supermarket, but I thought it would be good to get her involved in that way as she's not really into getting dirty yet (she's only 2).  I thought it would be a good way in since my new green house started to be erected yesterday by the hubby.  Should I give up on them and sneak some new one in there?

Thanks, that is all I needed to hear, you have confirmed what I was thinking on all the 3 things, just wanted someone else to say it too