Pretty and functional

If cooking is your main thing, you would probably be more interested in the culinary value of the three herbs and some of their varieties we are describing.

But, if cooking and gardening are your passions, we will give you more reasons to plant these three herbal groundcovers.

The value of groundcovers in general

• Groundcovers do just what their name says; they are low growing and willing to spread rather fast to cover large areas of soil.

• They can be used as living mulches acting as insulators against cold, or to slow moisture evaporation, and being dense growing, will go a long way to suppress weeds.

• They encourage microbial activity creating a healthy habitat for soil organisms, thus improving the soil structure.

• If chosen well, they supply the beauty of foliage texture and a ‘polished look’, drawing your eyes down to garden floor level, rather than always upwards which other plants do – they can keep you on your knees in awe!

Herbal groundcovers grow a further mile – you can eat them, use some of them to repel harmful insects from veggie plants, or enhance their taste or performance, and they have many medicinal and cosmetic uses too.

Oregano

Oregano (Oreganum vulgare) is a classical culinary herb originating from the mountains of Greece where in Greek philosophy it is believed that the goddess Aphrodite created it as a symbol of joy. In modern times, it is a well-known herb that no selfrespecting pizza creator would ever be without!

Statistics

• Evergreen perennial with good frost-hardiness, although it has a more prolific growth habit in summer and autumn.

• The small foliage on soft stems is oval and grey-green, slightly hairy and pungently aromatic.

• Flowering is in summer with dainty blooms in white, pink, lilac or purple which are loved by bees.

• The best planting position is full sun for full flavour development of the leaves.

• Regular harvesting of stems will continuously give you more tasty shoots.