The Best Way To Harvest Oregano From Your Garden

Whether you grow your oregano indoors or out, like most Mediterranean herbs, this aromatic plant needs regular haircuts to thrive. Pruning your oregano plant regularly ensures bushier growth, more leaf than flower, and a sharper flavor. It also encourages airflow — preventing disease and pests. Not knowing where on the plant to make the cut is among the biggest mistakes made when growing oregano. You need to trim the stems on the top of the plant, not closest to the ground.

Few people know that the term "oregano" doesn't actually refer to a plant. Instead, something (a dish, jar of dried herbs, or a species of plant) can taste and smell like oregano. In other words, it's a flavor and scent defined by a chemical compound called carvacrol. Most herb plants sold as oregano in garden centers are, in fact, wild marjoram (origanum vulgare), but you can also find the hardier, more pungent Greek oregano (origanum vulgare hirtum) if you hunt around for it. All that aside, whatever variety of oregano you have growing in your garden, be it wild marjoram, Greek oregano, or something else that has similar growing habits to its cousins — think full sun, good drainage, and lackluster soil — and, as such, like harvesting needs.