A perennial herb with aromatic leaves and pink flowers in summer. Ideally suited to Mediterranean and rich meat dishes, the flavour also blends well with tomatoes and on your Friday night pizza.
PLANTING
Before planting, prepare the soil with a healthy dose of compost and slow release fertiliser, and ensure it is free draining. No plants like to have their roots sitting in stagnant water, but some herbs – in particular oregano – have very thinly matted roots that are particularly susceptible to rotting. When planting ensure you break free this excess root matter. Herbs will perform better, and for much longer, if they are given sufficient space in the soil, so do your best to allocate them their own part of the patch. This is particularly important with perennial herbs that you hope will become the mainstays of the garden. When planting in pots choose an appropriately sized vessel that will allow room to move.
WATERING
In ground: Water daily, first thing in the morning, for the first 4 weeks and 3-4 times a week in the absence of rainfall thereafter.
In Pots: Water daily, in the absence of rainfall, for the entirety of the warm season, and then cut back to watering every second day during the cooler times of the year.
MAINTENANCE
Oregano is very good at adapting to its surroundings and can be quite drought tolerant once established. Perennial herbs harden up too and you will notice them becoming woodier at their bases as we move through winter. The drop in temperature makes the plant unable to process moisture and energy through its stems, and they become harder as a result. Plants then enter a stage of dormancy, will flower around the same time, and production comes to a grinding halt. At the end of winter a hard (and somewhat brutal) cut back of these plants is required to free them up, allowing for new spring growth.
HARVESTING
Oregano grows hard and stemmy at the base, and be young and tasty on their tops. For these varieties, tip pruning is recommended, which is harvesting the younger, more tender tops. This then encourages the plant to fill out with new growth again and is the best method for perpetual harvesting throughout the warmer times of the year and even through the earlier parts of winter. But as herbs become woody and go dormant later in the cold season, a severe cutback is required.
TIP
The plant can become thickly matted with roots and will benefit from division in early spring to encourage new growth.
