Good Morning Oregano

The past couple days I've been a bit stressed out by the whole animal pest situation in my garden. As a result I've been leaving the garden a little earlier in the evening than is normal (which normal is when its so dark I can't see anymore). This has lead me to be early to bed and early to rise for the past two days. Today it dawned on me- harvest some oregano!

The best time of day to harvest herbs is in the morning, or so I repeatedly read in gardening books. The whole focus is the herbs volatile oils- this gives them all their flavor. In the morning the volatile oils in plants happen to be at their peak.

The oregano garden.

This is the perennial herb garden... which embarrassingly has become the oregano garden. Oregano is great don't get me wrong, but it just takes over everything once its established. I originally started the oregano by seed (smallest seeds ever!) in a community garden... five years ago? Whenever the season was over I would dig them up and take them home to our rental and plop them in a bit of soil next to the apartment. When my boyfriend bought a house the oregano moved with us. Needless to say its still with us.

Lemon balm

The oregano is slowly choking out all the other herbs however. I had a handful of really nice sage plants growing in the perennial herb garden... but now the oregano has finally killed it off as this year I have yet to see any growth from the sage- just dead looking twigs hidden in the oregano. A lemon balm and a tarragon are still holding ground for the meantime, but surely they don't stand a chance. In the next year or so I want to establish independent square patches devoted to OTHER herbs. Maybe I should even post a sign 'NO OREGANO ALLOWED' to let it know where it belongs, that's not how nature works though.

Tarragon

Freshly cut oregano for drying.