Origanum vulgare
Oregano, wild marjoram, red tea, pennyroyal: its name comes from the Greek oros ganos, “the joy of the mountain” — and indeed, it carpets the dry, sunny slopes around the Mediterranean. Unlike its cousin marjoram, which is milder and more sensitive to cold, oregano is a hardy perennial with a bold fragrance.
Characteristics:
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Hardy perennial: upright stems, often reddish, with dark green foliage, sometimes yellow or variegated.
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Bee-friendly flowering: small white or pink flowers grouped in short spikes at the tops of the branches.
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Concentrated fragrance: the aromatic herb of Italian cuisine, even better dried than fresh.
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Very easy to grow: once established, it returns every year without any care.
Sowing advice:
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Exposure: full sun, absolutely. In the shade, it becomes spindly and loses its fragrance.
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Soil: poor, dry, preferably chalky and above all well drained. This is the decisive point: like thyme, it is far more likely to die from winter moisture than from cold. Do not enrich the soil — rich soil dilutes its aroma and makes it bland.
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Method: sow in spring or autumn, in a nursery bed or pots, on the surface or barely covered: its tiny seeds need light to germinate. See how to sow seeds.
Planting advice:
- Transplant with 30 cm spacing, in a rock garden, dry border, wall or large pot. It grows very well in containers, provided excess water can drain freely.
Care advice:
- No watering once established. No fertilizer.
- Cut back the clump after flowering to make it denser, and divide it every 3 to 4 years to rejuvenate it.
Harvesting advice:
- Harvest the flowering tops just as flowering begins, in dry weather and late morning: this is when the concentration of essential oils is at its highest.
- A rare feature among aromatic herbs: dried oregano is more fragrant than fresh oregano. Dry it in bunches hung upside down, in the shade and with good air circulation.
Beneficial pairings:
Benefits for biodiversity:
- It is one of the most bee-friendly plants in the dry garden: its pink spikes literally buzz with bees, bumblebees and butterflies in midsummer. Let it flower rather than harvesting everything.
- Its summer flowering occurs at a time when many spring flowers have already finished blooming.
Uses:
- The aromatic herb for pizza, tomato sauces, grilled dishes, soups and stews. It pairs particularly well with tomatoes, olive oil and cheese.
- A traditional medicinal plant, used in herbal medicine since antiquity. See our medicinal plants to sow.
Harvesting your own seeds:
Leave a few spikes to dry completely on the plant, then crush them over a container and winnow: the seeds are extremely fine. Oregano also readily self-seeds. See how to store your seeds.
Commitment to Quality: at SemiSauvage - Permaculture, we grow and select our seeds with respect for all living things as our guiding principle. Based near the Auvergne Volcanoes, we choose reproducible, non-hybrid varieties, tested for their germination rate, carefully sorted and packaged, without any chemical treatment. Our conviction: to give gardeners back the ability to resow, year after year, seeds that truly belong to them.
The joy of the mountain, and the indispensable aroma of Italian cuisine.
