Oregano - late summer trim time!

Yes, it's time to get that Oregano under control - it's great for the bees, but it will take over the border if you give it half a chance.

This - left - is an example: there was originally a line of Oregano along the middle of the border, but now it has merged into one enormous amorphous blob, which has consumed nearly all the other plants.

It is also heading out into the lawn!

Big clumps like this are prone to ant invasion, so in amongst the flowers are a mass of ant hills, making it almost impossible to cut it back: and as many of them (in this garden) were red ants, that made it quite unpleasant for the poor gardener (ie me) who does not enjoy the painful bite of a red ant!

To avoid this sort of mess, start early, start when the plants are young, and don't let them get too big for their boots.

Here's the sort of thing which you might find:

It's now early September, the flowers have mostly gone over, so instead of the usual purple (or sometimes, white) flowers, there is a haze of mostly grey, spent, flowers.

This clump is starting to get too big: it's swamping the Lamium to the right, and it is also starting to smother the patio rose behind it.

Now is the time to cut it back!

If you "part" the upper foliage, you will find a dense mass of small new leaves at the base of the plant - in this photo, left, you can see those wiry brown stems, which lead up to the now-going-grey spent flowers. I have pushed them to each side, so that you can see it more clearly.

Take your secateurs, and cut off all those wiry brown stems, as low down as you reasonably can.

Don't cut them off a couple of inches clear of the new foliage, leaving a strange hedgehog-like creation: clip them closely down to the new leaves.

This leaves you with something more like this, right: quite a difference!

Once you get rid of all the top foliage, you can also see how far your original plant is spreading out sideways, rooting as it goes, so now is a good time to go round the edges of the clump, pulling up and cutting off the excess growth.

If you want more Oregano, you can take the pieces which you have pulled up, pot them up and water them, and in no time at all you will have a batch of strong new plants.

And in the meantime you will have saved your border from being swamped!

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