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Growing Marjoram: The Complete Guide to Plant, Grow, & Harvest Marjoram

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No herb garden is complete without growing marjoram. It adds flavor and scent to your garden (not to mention your kitchen). Butterflies and other helpful insects flock to marjoram, making it a great companion plant.

You can quickly pinpoint marjoram in the garden. It reaches 1-2 feet tall with square stems and grey-green leaves. Small, white flowers grow in clusters over the plant. Not only does it make a great culinary herb, but it also works as a beautiful outdoor ground cover throughout the summer. Bottom line? Marjoram (Origanum majorana) is an easy-to-grow herb that all gardeners need to try!

Before you ask: yes, oregano and marjoram are different plants. They both belong to the mint family and they look similar, but one bite and you'll know that they're not the same. Technically, marjoram is a sub-species of oregano, but marjoram is milder, sweeter and more floral. Oregano has a pungent, spicy flavor.

The Best Marjoram Varieties

Marjoram comes in three varieties: sweet marjoram, pot marjoram, and wild marjoram. Wild marjoram is known as common oregano. You can use any of the variations in the kitchen as a seasoning for thousands of dishes, and all varieties have a beautiful scent. Centuries ago, marjoram was used to flavor beer before the discovery of hops.

A few varieties you might want to try include:

  • French Marjoram: Origanum onites – This is hardy marjoram with mid-green leaves that turn to gold in the summer. It produces pink-white flowers. Add to pasta and meat dishes for more flavor.
  • Gold Tipped Marjoram: Origanum vulgare – As the name implies, this type features green leaves with gold tips and pink flowers. It tastes excellent in pizza and vegetable dishes.
  • Sweet Marjoram: Origanum majorana – This is a plant with silky green leaves and pink flowers. Use it in salads, sauces, and soups.

How to Grow Marjoram

Growing Zones

Marjoram is a tender perennial, but most gardeners grow it as an annual because it isn't capable of handling cold and freezing temperatures. It grows well in zones 6-11.

Sun Requirements

Pick a location in your garden that receives full sunlight. Marjoram can handle partial shade, so long as the area gets at least six hours of sunlight each day.

Soil Requirements

Marjoram needs to be in a location that has well-draining soil. Standing water is a quick way to kill off your plants. It also prefers plenty of organic matter.

To prepare the soil, test the pH level. Growing marjoram needs a pH level between 6.5 and 7.5, which is close to neutral. If you find that your soil is too acidic, try adding some lime to bring the acid levels down towards neutral. On the other hand, if your soil is too alkaline, you can try adding some grass clippings or peat moss.

Once you have the pH level fixed, mix in some compost or aged manure to add nutrients to the soil.

Starting Marjoram from Seeds

Marjoram can't handle cold temperatures. It's best to start seeds indoors during late winter or early spring, 6-8 weeks before your final frost date.

In a container with potting soil, sow the seeds below the soil surface. Seeds germinate in about ten days, so be patient, they'll sprout right when you think you did something wrong. Keep your seedlings moist and under a grow light until it's time for them to put them outside.

Planting Marjoram Outside

Once the threat of frost has passed, it’s time to move those seedlings outside for planting. Transplant 2 weeks after the last frost day, and be sure to give them 7-10 days to harden off before putting them in the ground permanently.

Spacing

Marjoram plants should be placed 8-12 inches apart with 18-24 inches between rows. If you live in an area that has high humidity levels, space the plants further apart to encourage better air circulation.

Taking a Cutting from Marjoram

If you live in an area that receives frost every year, it will be hard, if not impossible, to succeed at growing marjoram as a perennial in the ground. You can take a cutting from late spring to the middle of the summer to grow in pots inside throughout the winter. Another choice is to dig up the plants every fall.

Taking a cutting from marjoram is easy. It propagates well if you take a cutting from the softwood and semi-hardwood cutting.

Take the cuttings in the morning when the weather is dry, but make sure you water the plant the day before. Pick a new side-shoot and take more cuttings than you think you’ll need. Cut them down to 2-4 inches, cutting beneath a leaf node where the leaf joins a stem. Cut the stem at an angle and put in potting soil. Keep the new planting moist until it forms roots.

Growing Marjoram in Containers

Don't have a place for a garden bed? Don't worry! Growing marjoram in containers is easy. You can grow it indoors as a houseplant or outside on your patio. If you do decide to grow it in a container, make sure you remember to move the plant indoors, or to a sheltered location once the temperatures drop in your area.

Pick a pot that is at least six inches wide and has drainage holes at the bottom. If the container doesn't have drainage holes, you'll need to make some with a drill. Pick a windowsill that faces south so that your plants receive enough sunlight. If you opt to put your plants outside, pick a spot that has full sun.

How to Care for Marjoram

Marjoram is a reasonably hardy plant, so care is relatively easy. Once marjoram is established well in your garden, it doesn’t require much maintenance when compared to other plants.

Watering

Marjoram is drought tolerant, so if you tend to forget to water your plants often, this herb might be for you. Give transplants plenty of water at first, then allow the soil to dry between watering once plants are established.

Fertilizing

In general, you don't need to worry about feeding your marjoram. It's hardy and takes care of itself for the most part. However, you may want to provide half-strength fertilizer every few weeks during the early part of the growing season.

Pruning

Keeping your marjoram plant pruned helps to encourage new growth throughout the season. Cut the leaves back when the plant is too large, and when flower buds appear, make sure to cut the plant back low to stimulate new growth. Plus, cutting the plant back gives you more to harvest.

For indoor plants, pinch back plants before they start to bloom in mid to late summer, around July to September. You want to keep the potted marjoram down to a manageable 12 inches. Try to eliminate the woodiness of the indoor marjoram plant.

Common Marjoram Pests and Diseases

A few common garden pests like to give marjoram a hard time. Watch your plants carefully and always take the least-toxic approach to handle the diseases and pests on your herbs.

Aphids

Aphids are soft-bodied insects that stick to the underside of leaves. An infestation of aphids causes leaves to become yellow and distorted. Aphids release a sticky, sugary substance that causes mold on the plants.

If the plant is sturdy, you can use a strong jet of water to knock the aphids off the leaves. Use insecticidal soaps or oils, such as neem oil, to control the infestation.

Spider Mites

Spider mites cause growing marjoram leaves to become stippled with yellow, and the leaves may appear with a bronzed color. You might be able to see mites as tiny moving dots on the underside of the leaves.

Use a jet of water to spray off the spider mites from the leaves. For bad infestations, you can use insecticidal soap to kill off the mites, but be careful because some soaps will kill off mites' natural enemies.

Mint Rust

Mint rust displays with small, bright orange or yellow pustules on the underside of the leaves. It causes large areas of the leaf tissue to die or drop off the plant. This disease affects mint and other plants. You need to remove infected plants to reduce the spread.

Cutworms

Cutworms attack the stems of young seedlings at the soil line. It might eat holes through the surface of fruits. They’re more active at night and hide during the day in the soil.

To treat cutworms, remove all plant residue from the soil after harvest, and fit a foil collar around plant stems to cover the bottom 3 inches above the soil line and a few inches into the ground. You also can hand-pick larvae after dark.

Botrytis Blight

Also known as gray mold, botrytis blight is a fungus that attacks growing marjoram plants. You'll first notice soft brown spots on leaves, followed by gray mold. Make sure plants have plenty of air circulation, and avoid overhead watering. You can also try spraying plants with a copper fungicide.

Whiteflies

These tiny flies suck the sap out of your herbs and can spread disease. Use yellow sticky traps, encourage beneficial predator insects, and spray plants with neem oil.

Companion Plants for Marjoram

Wondering what you should plant with marjoram plants? Picking companion plants for your marjoram helps to improve its performance. You want to make sure you choose companion plants with similar growing requirements.

Here are some of the best companion plants for marjoram.

  • Celery
  • Corn
  • Eggplant
  • Onions
  • Peas
  • Potatoes
  • Radishes
  • Squash
  • Beans
  • Cabbage
  • Broccoli
  • Thyme
  • Oregano
  • Pepper
  • Pumpkin

Harvesting and Storing Marjoram

The best part has arrived – harvesting your marjoram. It's a flavorful herb that makes your dishes unique. When harvesting marjoram, pick the shoots before the flowers start to open. Choosing at this time ensures the best flavor because fully opened blooms create a bitter taste that isn't so appealing. That said, you can snip off marjoram branches any time you need them. You can begin to harvest 5-6 weeks after transplanting outside.

Once you have all of your herbs clipped, bundle them together and hang them upside in a dark, dry area to dry. When you’re ready to use marjoram, remove the leaves from the stems and store whole. You can crush or grind the leaves before adding to dishes.

When you're storing marjoram, make sure you pick an airtight container and keep it in the dark, dry area.

Marjoram is an excellent herb for gardeners of all experience levels to try. Due to its hardiness and tolerance to neglect, even those with black thumbs can enjoy growing marjoram. It adds a unique flavor to dishes, and you can grow it year-round, whether it's outside as a perennial or inside as a houseplant.

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How to Identify and Get Rid of Cutworms From Your Garden

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Have you noticed your garden isn’t thriving like you’d hoped it would?

Does it appear as though something is attacking your plants from the ground up? Then you may have a cutworm problem.

I’m going to walk you through how to recognize cutworms, prevent them from establishing themselves in your garden, and also how to handle a cutworm infestation.

If you’re interested in protecting your garden from this pest, you must have this information. Here’s what you should know to defeat cutworms:

What is a Cutworm?

A cutworm is the caterpillar state (or larvae) of a variety of nocturnal moths. These moths don’t usually cause any damage once grown (besides laying more eggs) in your garden.

However, their babies tend to wreak havoc on your growing plants. They resemble grubs and can be a variety of colors (solid, striped, or spotted.)

Cutworms are soft-bodied and may have a shiny gloss to their appearance, or they could be dull and lackluster. They’re approximately two inches in length and will curl up into a C shape when resting or being disturbed.

These pests will attack your plants at the root or climb them and eat the leaves and buds straight from the plant.

The Lifecycle of a Cutworm

A female moth can lay hundreds of eggs throughout her lifetime. She can lay them one by one or in groups.

She will lay her eggs on small plants or in the residue of a rotting plant. Some varieties of moths which migrate will even choose to lay their eggs in the dirt.

From the eggs, the cutworms hatch and as they emerge to begin their life will, in turn, feast on your garden.

Cutworms will overwinter in your garden, in most cases. They’ll also make a home for the winter in your firewood pile.

If the eggs were laid in the dirt, the cutworms have an easy time making their way to your crops and feeding upon them for survival.

The mating season for cutworms is long. They’ll mate and lay eggs from the early months of spring to the late months of fall.

That means your garden can be home for as many as three generations of cutworms per year.

What Do Cutworms Eat (And Other Preferences?)

Cutworms will feast on many of your garden veggies. A few of their favorites are:

When cutworms find your crops, they frequently begin by feeding on the stems. They’ll tunnel through them or cut the stem in half at the base.

They munch on your vegetable garden during the warmer months while feasting on weeds and grass during the colder months before hibernating.

Their most common feeding time is as the sun is setting, or they made feed all day when it’s cloudy.

How to Prevent Cutworms

You can prevent cutworms from attacking your garden by following a few tips. Here’s what you should try if you want to prevent cutworms:

  • Till your garden before winter moves in and till it again prior to planting. This will unearth the eggs, and the freeze will help kill them before they hatch.
  • Wait to plant until after the cutworms have hatched and are moving about. If you don’t give them a food supply, they’ll die.
  • Keep grass and weeds out of your garden and kept short around your garden. You’re limiting their space to lay by doing this.
  • Invite birds and fireflies into your garden because they’re natural predators.
  • Plant sunflowers around the perimeter of your garden. Cutworms love them and will eat them instead of feasting on your vegetables.

How to Stop Cutworms in Their Tracks

Life happened, and you couldn’t prevent cutworms from surviving and thriving in your garden. Now what?

There are a few easy steps you can take to eradicate cutworms in your garden. Try these helpful tips:

1. Make Them Eat Their Wheaties

If you make a mixture of cornflakes or bran-based cereal with caterpillar insecticide and molasses, you’ll make something the cutworms will love.

When they feast on this mixture, they’ll ultimately die. Sprinkle it on the surface of your garden and wait.

2. Put a Collar on It

Plant collars are one of the best ways to keep cutworms at bay. You place a circular collar made of cardboard around the base of your plants.

It should be approximately four inches in diameter. The cutworms will no longer be able to get to the stem of the plants.

3. Pick Them

If you walk through your garden as the sun is going down, you may see cutworms working their way through your garden too.

Put on some gloves, pick them off your plants, and place them in a cup. They make excellent chicken feed for your laying hens.

4. DE to the Rescue

Diatomaceous earth is a natural product which is great for many things. One of which is keeping your garden pest free.

Sprinkle a little DE around the base of your plants in a circle. When the cutworms cross it, they’ll be sliced, diced, and dried out.

5. Insecticide

If cutworms have begun ravaging your garden, it’s time to pull out the insecticide. Follow the instructions on the bottle for best results.

Spray your garden and hopefully, the pests will either die or move out of your gardening space. This could be a straight-forward method for solving your cutworm problem.

You now know how to recognize cutworms in your garden, how their lifecycle works, how to prevent cutworms from moving into your garden, and how to treat them if you already have an infestation.

It’s our hope this information will help you better protect your garden and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

If cutworms go unchecked, they can ravage your garden and waste all the effort you’ve put into gardening up until this point.

We wish you all the best and hope you produce a bountiful harvest for you and your loved ones this growing season.

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Homemade Mayonnaise Recipe – Two Ways

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Mayonnaise is a simple and delicious condiment that adds flavor and comfort to most foods. It is highly versatile and works well as a spread on sandwiches, as the prime component of dips, as the binding ingredient in egg salad, chicken salad, or tuna salad, and as a tasteful baste on roasted meats.

If you buy Mayonnaise in the store you are shorting yourself in two ways. First, you are overpaying. As you will soon see, the ingredients in mayonnaise are simple and inexpensive, and the preparation is quick and easy. Even more importantly, the rich and savory taste of homemade mayo surely triumphs over the blander store variety.

To make Mayonnaise you will need an egg, vinegar, salt, lemon juice, mustard, and oil. That is all. These six ingredients are probably lying around your kitchen and cupboard already.

If not, they are cheap, common, and, besides the egg, non-perishable or very long lasting. Do yourself a favor and head down to the store and pick these staples up at your earliest convenience.

Yield: 10 oz Homemade Mayonnaise Recipe Print Here’s the simple recipe for homemade mayonnaise along with a medicinal variation which consists of the same ingredients with one substitution and a few additional herbs + spices. The process for making both is identical, resulting in about 10 oz of mayonnaise.

Ingredients

Mayonnaise ingredients

  • 1 egg yolk at room temperature (a lighter, less dense mayonnaise will result if you use the entire egg)
  • 1 Tablespoon Vinegar
  • 1 Teaspoon Lemon juice
  • ½ Teaspoon dry mustard powder (or 1 Teaspoon dijon mustard)
  • ¼ Teaspoon to salt
  • 1 cup light olive oil (or vegetable oil. Any light, neutral oil will do. Avoid extra virgin olive oil)

Medicinal Variation

  • 1 Tablespoon unfiltered organic Apple Cider Vinegar (in place of white or red Vinegar)
  • Dash of Seventeenth Century Pharmaceutical Spices: Nutmeg, Cloves, AllSpice, Cinnamon
  • Dash of anti-inflammatory spices: Ginger, Turmeric
  • Dash of parsley and chives

Instructions

  1. Make sure egg and all ingredients are at room temperature. Take egg out of fridge and let it sit on the counter for at least twenty minutes, or fill a cup with warm water and soak for a few minutes.
  2. Separate egg yolk.
  3. Combine egg yolk, vinegar, lemon juice, mustard and salt and whisk vigorously. (Add medicinal spices if desired.)
  4. SLOWLY – and I mean painstakingly slowly, drizzle in olive oil while whisking the mixture. (This can be done in a food processor.). If you add the oil too quickly the mayonnaise may ‘break’. This means the oil and the egg will separate and you will have to add mustard or more yolk and whisk vigorously to fix this blunder.
  5. Add additional salt, seasoning or lemon juice to taste.
  6. Store in fridge up to a week.

Notes

* Warning! Eating raw eggs may be dangerous for pregnant women, children, and others.

© Heather Harris

Recipe Notes

The Cleansing Aspect of Vinegar

One of the delightful aspects of homemade recipes is that they are flexible and open to interpretation. For example, some mayonnaise recipes call for white vinegar and others for red. This is simply a matter of personal preference. I choose to use organic, unfiltered apple cider vinegar because I enjoy the pungent taste and aroma.

Apple cider vinegar contains the ‘mother’ element of vinegar, which consists of a sour brew of beneficial bacteria and cellulose. This aspect of the vinegar contains many health benefits. One simple way to comprehend the cleansing benefits of any vinegar is to think of a great traditional and natural household cleaner – white vinegar and water.

To make this cleaner you simply pour a few ounces of white vinegar into a spray bottle, add the same amount of water, and voila, there you have it! The vinegar compound dissolves dirt and gunk from kitchen counters, sinks, and floors and just about anywhere you can spray it.

If vinegar erases dirt and cleans gunk from exterior surfaces, think about what it does inside your body. Basically it cleanses you, and flushes out the bad gunk. Thankfully, vinegar is harmless and edible so there’s no concern about trending teenagers guzzling down vinegar cleansers in hopes of initiating the next Tidepod challenge.

Eggs

Some people find a multitude of choices overwhelming but I am not one of those people. I like to consider the options. Even a simple ingredient like an egg has many varieties to choose from.

If you’re lucky enough to have live chickens running around on your property then you don’t have to look any farther than your own backyard. Go ahead and pluck one of those eggs when the rooster isn’t looking.

If you head to your local supermarket the main variables of egg selection will be: color, size, price, cage free, organic, non-GMO and local. (To name a few). Now, if you multiply all of these options there are literally dozens of possibilities to choose from. Also if you want to go off the deep end you can consider Quail eggs and other rare birds.

The good news is you can’t go wrong. No matter what you pick, you’ll end up with a decent bird egg. As a matter of fact, if you want to keep things simple you can just choose whatever catches your eye first.

Let’s face it, farm chickens have it pretty rough. Sure they have a guaranteed source of food and shelter but they spend their days cooped up (literally) and don’t have a lot of quality time off to spend with their friends and family.

I usually buy cage free eggs because the little tinge of guilt I feel for the plight of chickens is diminished this way. But hey, the food chain exists on planet earth and we sure got lucky when we were born at the top of it (excepting the occasional Great White Shark attack).

If you’re able to spend a few extra dollars I suggest buying the organic, local, cage free eggs. They taste better and you can consider the extra expenditure as an investment in your health. How lucky are we to have so many options and choices in America when it comes to food?

Salt

Let’s talk about salt. There’s table salt, iodized salt, sea salt, kosher salt, pink Himalayan salt. Ok I admit, eggs are basically just eggs and salt is basically just salt.

But I happen to enjoy fussing about eggs and salt and vinegars. And at the end you get to eat them.

So back to salt. Chemically speaking there is little verifiable difference between any of the salt varieties. Iodized salt has iodine added to it, obviously, but besides that they are chemically indistinguishable. However, generally speaking, I’m more inclined to select an ingredient that is less refined and closer to its natural state. I tend to think that the less processed an ingredient is, the more healthy and flavorful it will be.

Along those lines, wouldn’t you rather eat salt that came from the ocean or the Himalayan mountain range than a nondescript food lab in some beige, windowless building somewhere?

That being said, I am not your average Luddite. I am aware that modern food production and agriculture techniques have led to a massive worldwide diminishment in hunger and malnutrition. And being an American means that I’m fortunate enough to be able to fuss over salt. So I fuss over it. God Bless America!

When I made this recipe I ended up using sea salt because I have a little sea salt grinder that is fun to use.

Mustard

For the mustard element of this recipe you can use dried mustard powder or fresh Dijon mustard out of the bottle. Whichever you prefer. Mustard by the way can help relieve muscle aches and respiratory difficulties.

Oil

For the oil contingent – I went with canola oil. Any kind of neutral or light olive oil works here. (There is great Internet debate about the supposed dangers of canola and other vegetable oils. I’ll leave it to you to do your research.) Be careful not to use extra virgin olive oil since that will make the mayo taste bitter.

Lemon

Lemon juice compliments the vinegar and adds a bright and zesty twang. Obviously.

Optional Spices

I like to add a dash of nutmeg, cloves, allspice and cinnamon to my mayo. This expands the flavor profile and enervates the palette.

In the Seventeenth century, nutmeg was worth its weight in gold, literally, and was used not only as a spice but also as a pharmaceutical. Druggists of the day advertised nutmeg as a cure for the cough, cold and plague!

Trading for nutmeg was a precipitous operation that involved sailing halfway around the globe to the exotic Spice Islands on wooden boats. Countless sailors perished in the process.

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