This page has the spacing for oregano in the table above and not much else in figures, because oregano is a perennial cut repeatedly through the season rather than a crop that matures on a schedule. The rows that would carry a day count or a yield say why they are empty instead of guessing at one.
What the numbers cannot carry is the two things people actually search for: what to plant it beside, and when to cut it. Those turn out to be connected, because the right moment to cut oregano is set by the flowers — the same flowers that do the companion planting work.
Oregano companion plants
Tomatoes and peppers are the classic pairing, and it is an easy one: oregano likes the same warmth and sun, and it is low enough not to shade them. Whether it does anything for the tomato is another question — the pairing is at least as much a kitchen habit as a garden one. Our tomato and pepper guides cover those crops.
Cabbage and the other brassicas are the traditional pest-based pairing, on the claim that oregano's scent confuses cabbage moth. Plausible, thinly evidenced, and free to try. Does companion planting actually work sorts the well-supported mechanisms from the repeated ones.
The mechanism that does hold up is the flowers, and it is the reason to leave some of the plant uncut. Oregano's flowers are small and open, the shape that small beneficial insects can feed from, and a flowering clump is worked hard by hoverflies, parasitic wasps and bees. Their larvae eat aphids and caterpillars. This is the same well-supported mechanism that makes dill and thyme useful, and it applies garden-wide rather than only to the neighbouring plant.
Which sets up the one real tension on this page: the cut that gives you the best dried oregano is the cut that takes the flowers off. The resolution is simple — grow two plants, or cut half the clump and leave the rest to bloom.
The test that is actually useful is conditions rather than tradition. Oregano wants sun, sharp drainage and poor soil, so its natural neighbours are the other Mediterranean herbs: thyme, sage, rosemary and lavender. A bed of those can be managed as one thing. The soft herbs — basil, cilantro, parsley — want moisture and feeding and belong elsewhere, even though basil and oregano end up in the same dishes.
One practical caution that is not about companions at all: oregano spreads by runners. Put it where that is acceptable, or contain it. A clump left in the middle of a mixed bed will work its way outwards into its neighbours, and while it pulls up easily, it is a job you have to keep doing.
The note under the companion table on this page is worth reading: these pairings are traditional garden practice rather than settled science, and getting the drainage and the sun right will do far more for an oregano than its neighbours ever will.
When to pick oregano
There are two different harvests and they answer to different signals.
Picking for tonight: any time through the season. Snip a few sprigs from the tips and use them. No timing question at all.
Cutting to put away: watch the flower buds. Oregano's aromatic oils reach their strongest concentration just before the flowers open, and that is the cut worth drying. Once the plant is in full flower the flavour has already begun to move past its best.
That is a signal on the plant rather than a date on a calendar, which is why the quick facts table above has no days-to-maturity figure and says so — the reason in that row is the honest one.
How to cut so the plant comes back. Take whole stems, cutting back by about a third to a half of the plant's height, and cut just above a pair of leaves. The plant branches from that joint and returns bushier than it was. That beats picking individual leaves, which does more damage for less harvest and leaves a plant looking chewed.
A well-established clump will give two or three cuts like this in a season, because it regrows readily. The first cut, just before flowering, is the best one. Don't cut hard going into winter — a plant needs some growth on it to come through.
Young plants in their first year should be picked lightly or left alone to root out properly.
Drying oregano
Oregano deserves a proper section on this rather than a sentence, because it is one of the few herbs that is genuinely better dried than fresh — and knowing why tells you how to do it.
Why it works. Most herbs carry their flavour in volatile oils that are driven off by drying, which is why dried basil and dried parsley are pale imitations. Oregano's aromatic compounds are comparatively stable, so drying removes the water and leaves the flavour behind, concentrated. Fresh oregano can be slightly harsh and grassy; dried oregano is rounder and stronger. It is the reason almost every recipe that calls for oregano means the dried kind.
How to do it:
- Cut whole stems just before the flowers open, in the morning after any dew has gone. Dry material dries better.
- Don't wash it if you can avoid it. Shake or brush off dust instead. Water added now is water you then have to remove, and wet bunches are what go mouldy.
- Tie small, loose bunches. Small and loose matters: a thick bundle stays damp in the middle and spoils while the outside dries.
- Hang them upside down somewhere warm, dark and airy. Dark preserves colour and flavour, and moving air is what actually does the drying. An airing cupboard, a shed rafter or a spare room works; a steamy kitchen does not.
- Give it one to two weeks, until the leaves are brittle and crumble rather than bend.
- Strip the leaves off the stems and store them whole in a sealed jar out of the light. Crumble them only as you cook — a whole leaf holds its oils far longer than a crushed one, which is why shop-bought powdered oregano tastes of so little.
Properly dried and stored whole, it holds good flavour for a year or so, and is still usable after that with a heavier hand.
Planting and spacing
Oregano is planted from a container-grown plant or a division rather than sown. Seed-grown plants vary a great deal in flavour, and since flavour is the entire point, it is worth buying or dividing a plant you have actually tasted. That is why the quick facts table shows no sowing dates, with the reason in each row.
UGA gives oregano as a spring or fall planting rather than a number of weeks relative to frost, so that is what the table quotes.
Spacing is 12 inches, from UGA's herb table, and the plant spacing calculator turns it into plant counts for a bed. There is no row figure: UGA gives none for any herb and Minnesota's herb page gives no per-herb figures at all, so that row reports a confirmed absence rather than a guess.
Set the plant with the top of its rootball level with the soil surface, and backfill with the soil you dug out rather than compost.
Soil, sun and feeding
Full sun, six or more hours, as the note under the quick facts table explains. Shade gives soft, sparse growth with weak flavour, the same way it does with thyme.
Poor, sharply drained soil. This is the part that surprises people who treat herbs as a crop to be looked after: oregano is stronger flavoured on thin, dry, stony ground than on anything improved. On heavy soil, plant on a mound, in a raised bed or in a pot — what to fill raised garden beds with covers the mix, pushed towards the gritty end.
Do not feed it. Rich soil and nitrogen give a large, soft, mild plant. That is the opposite of what oregano is grown for, and it is the most common reason a home-grown one tastes of nothing.
Water it in when new, then rarely. No publication behind this page gives a weekly figure, so the quick facts table says so rather than printing one. An established clump is drought-tolerant and far more at risk from standing wet.
No publication behind this page gives a pH range for oregano itself. UGA puts most herbs at about 6 to 7.5 and Minnesota at 6.0 to 7.5, and the table reports it that way.
Divide the clump every couple of years. Oregano goes woody and sparse in the middle as it ages, the same as the other Mediterranean herbs. Lifting it, splitting off the vigorous outer growth and replanting that keeps it productive — and it is the easiest way to get more plants.
Common problems
No flavour. Rich soil, too much feed, too little sun, or a variable seed-grown plant. The first three are fixable; the fourth is not, and a division from a good plant is the answer.
Spreading everywhere. Runners. Contain it in a pot, or lift and divide annually.
Woody and bare in the centre. Age. Divide it and replant the outer growth.
Collapsed over winter. Wet ground rather than cold. Check the drainage before replanting.
Dried leaves went mouldy or dusty-grey. Bunches too thick, or not enough air movement. Smaller, looser bunches somewhere airier.
Our other herb guides are basil, thyme, sage, rosemary, lavender, dill, parsley and cilantro. The full set is on the crop guides index.