Greens & herbs
Mexican oregano
Plant in April; the salsa-pot oregano.
- Outside
- Plant in April, after frost danger
- Where
- Raised bed or in ground, well-drained spot
- Sun
- Full sun; tolerates afternoon shade
- Water
- Deep and infrequent; drainage over extra water
- Harvest
- Jun to frost, snip sprigs
Care
- Water
- Deep and infrequent with the bed, about an inch a week once established; it asks for well-drained soil more than extra water, and mulch holds the moisture it does get.
- Sow
- Set out a nursery plant in April, once frost danger passes; the sheets keep it to a spring planting, and it grows fast enough to pay for the year by summer.
- Feed
- A shovel of compost at planting is plenty. It prefers slightly alkaline, well-drained soil, which makes it one of the few plants here that wants the ground exactly as the yard found it.
- Ready
- Snip sprigs once the shrub fills out from early summer on, and keep at it; steady picking through the salsa season keeps it coming until the November frost.
- Trouble
- Drainage is the demand: slightly alkaline and well-drained is its preference, so give it a raised or mounded spot in clay country. A late frost is the other risk for that April planting.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 5–15 gal bag.
- Water
- Water when the top inch of mix dries, then well; a woody herb in a bag wants drainage, and the bag moves to afternoon shade at summer peak.
- Feed
- Lean suits it: a light compost top-dress in spring, a weekly plain-water leach to clear salts, feed held when days top 90F.
- Sow
- One plant per 5 gallon or larger woody-herb pot; it is a shrub, so size the pot for its three-to-four-foot frame.
The oregano of the Mexican salsa pot, a shrubby perennial that runs three to four feet and wants the alkaline clay this yard already has.
Growing
The Master Gardener sheets call it Mexican oregano bush or rosemary mint, Poliomintha longiflora, and the profile fits Central Texas exactly: full sun, tolerance for afternoon shade, a preference for slightly alkaline, well-drained soil. It is a fast shrub to three or four feet. April planting after frost danger passes is the rhythm, and it freezes back in most Killeen winters, usually returning from the roots where the drainage is good. Give it the April slot, room for a shrub, and steady snipping; the size is the harvest.
In the kitchen
The commercial spice called Mexican oregano is a different plant, Lippia graveolens; this is the Texas garden's own oregano, the one border and Tex-Mex kitchens reach for. A plant by the kitchen door keeps the salsa season in sprigs from June to frost.