Oregano
Origanum vulgare
Low aromatic mat that flowers for pollinators and ground-shades.
Spacing & sowing
- Plant spacing
- 9.8 in
- In-row spacing
- 7.9 in
- Between rows
- 11.8 in
- Square-foot density
- 1 per square
Calendar (from your frost dates)
- Sow indoors
- 42 days before the last spring frost
- Plant out
- at the last spring frost
- First harvest
- 45 days after the last spring frost
- Harvest ends
- 14 days after the first fall frost
Growing
- Type
- Herb · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Sunlight
- Full sun
- Watering
- Low
- Soil
- Poor, dry, free-draining
- Feeding
- Rarely needs feeding; lean soil gives the best flavor.
- USDA zones
- 4a–10b
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- June
- Pruning
- Cut it hard back after flowering, then tidy the plant again in spring.
Through the year
- Mar–Apr Bud Break
- Apr–Jun Harvest
- Jun–Oct Flowering
- Oct–Dec Growing
- Jan–Mar Growing
Harvest
- When
- Begin light picking once plants reach 10–15cm, from late spring onward. Flavor is strongest just as flower buds appear in early–mid summer — that is the moment for the main harvest, cut in the morning after dew has dried.
- What to look for
- Stems are woody at the base with dense pairs of small, strongly aromatic leaves; crushing a leaf should release a sharp, peppery scent. Flower buds forming signal peak oil concentration.
- How to harvest
- Snip stems just above a leaf node, taking the top half to two-thirds of each stem; the plant regrows bushier from the cut points. For drying, cut whole stems 5–8cm above the crown just before flowering.
- How often
- Pick lightly throughout the season; one or two hard pre-flowering cuts per year give the main preserving harvests and keep the perennial clump from getting leggy and woody. Stop hard cutting about a month before autumn frosts so the plant hardens off.
- Storing the crop
- Fresh sprigs keep a week wrapped in damp paper in the fridge. Oregano is one of the few herbs that improves with drying — hang bunches upside down in a dark, airy place, then strip leaves into airtight jars where they keep a year. It also freezes well chopped in oil.
Companions
Tomatoes, Peppers, Basil, Beans
Pests & problems
- Aphids Small sap-sucking insects — greenfly, blackfly — that cluster on soft new growth and excrete sticky honeydew. Squash by hand, hose off with water, and encourage ladybirds and lacewings.
- Spider mites Near-invisible mites that stipple leaves yellow and spin fine webbing in hot, dry conditions. Raise humidity, mist and rinse foliage, and introduce predatory mites under glass.
- Root & crown rot Root rot where the soil stays wet
Garden allies
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Big-eyed bug Geocoris spp.
A stubby 3 mm bug with enormous wrap-around eyes, working the soil surface and the low foliage for aphids, mites, thrips and insect eggs. It is the main natural check on chinch bugs in a lawn and it is killed outright by insecticide.
- Green lacewing Chrysoperla carnea
Its bristly larvae — "aphid lions" — impale aphids, mealybugs, thrips, and mite colonies, eating hundreds a week. Adults feed on nectar and pollen from small open flowers and overwinter in hollow stems left standing.
- Ladybird (lady beetle) Coccinellidae
The gardener’s favorite ally: adults and their alligator-shaped larvae each eat thousands of aphids, plus scale, mealybugs, and other soft-bodied sap-suckers. Grow flat, open flowers for the adults and never spray a colony that ladybird larvae are already working.
- Minute pirate bug Orius spp.
A pinhead-sized true bug that is the best natural check on thrips, and happily spears aphids, mites, and insect eggs too. It needs pollen when prey is scarce, so keep something flowering nearby.
- Aphid midge Aphidoletes aphidimyzaHunts Aphids
A tiny midge whose orange maggots paralyze aphids and drink them dry, twenty or more each. Sold as a greenhouse biological control and resident outdoors wherever there are small nectar flowers and an unsprayed aphid colony to find.
- Assassin bug ReduviidaeHunts Aphids
A patient ambusher with a curved beak it drives into whatever it catches — caterpillars, beetles, bugs, and the occasional bee, so count it a generalist rather than a specialist. It will jab a careless finger too, so admire it and leave it be.
- Damsel bug NabidaeHunts Aphids
A slender, mantis-armed bug that grabs aphids, small caterpillars, and thrips in low crops and meadowy edges. Leave a strip of unmown grasses and flowers for it to overwinter in.
- Dragonflies & damselflies OdonataHunts Aphids
Aerial hunters that take mosquitoes, midges and small flies on the wing all day, and whose larvae spend a year or more clearing the same insects from the water. A pond with planted margins and no fish is the way to have them.
- Garden birds PasseriformesHunts Aphids
Both things are true: birds strip your currants and a brood of blue tits takes several thousand caterpillars out of one fruit tree in a fortnight. Net what you must and welcome them everywhere else — a nest box near the apples is worth more than a spray.
- Hoverfly SyrphidaeHunts Aphids
Bee-mimicking flies whose legless larvae graze aphid colonies clean while the adults pollinate. A ribbon of shallow, nectar-rich flowers kept in bloom all season recruits wave after wave of them.
- Parasitic wasps Braconidae & TrichogrammaHunts Aphids
Tiny, stingless wasps that lay eggs in or on caterpillars, aphids, and moth eggs — the white cocoons riding a hornworm are their calling card, so leave that caterpillar be. Umbel flowers with shallow nectar keep the adults fuelled.
- Praying mantis MantidaeHunts Aphids
A sit-and-wait ambusher that snatches caterpillars, beetles, and anything else that wanders close — friend and foe alike, so count it a mixed blessing. Tall, structured plantings give it perches and egg-case anchors.
- Predatory mites Phytoseiulus & AmblyseiusHunts Spider mites
Fast orange mites that hunt spider mites egg-by-egg, and cousins that clear thrips and fungus-gnat larvae. Sold as a biological control for greenhouses; outdoors they follow humidity — mist and mulch, don’t dust with sulfur.
- Rove beetle StaphylinidaeHunts Spider mites
Slim, quick beetles with short wing cases that hunt in soil and litter, taking root-fly eggs and larvae, fungus-gnat larvae, and mites. Mulch and undisturbed ground keep them resident year-round.
- Soldier beetle CantharidaeHunts Aphids
Soft-winged beetles seen mating on flower heads in high summer; adults and larvae both take aphids and soft grubs. Open composite flowers are their landing pads and hunting grounds.
- Spiders AraneaeHunts Aphids
Webs, ambushes, and night patrols make spiders the garden’s steadiest generalist predators, taking whatever flies or crawls past. Mulch, ground cover, and undisturbed corners keep the population dense.
Companion planting
Good neighbors
Did you know?
Oregano's flavor grows stronger as the plant flowers in the heat of summer.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com