Oregano

An Old World cottage-garden annual grown for daisy- to chrysanthemum-like flowerheads (3 to 4 inches across) in bright yellow through deep orange, often with a contrasting darker center disk. In cool climates it blooms over a long summer-to-fall window; in hot summers it tends to languish and may need a midseason cutback to rebloom. The somewhat bitter flowers and lance-shaped aromatic leaves are edible, and the petals lend color to soups, rice, and baked goods.

A clumping perennial onion-relative forming dense grass-like tufts of hollow tubular leaves + globular lavender-pink flowerheads in late spring. Edible leaves + flowers; among the easiest perennial vegetables for beginners. Globular flowerheads are major early-season nectar sources for honey bees + native bees.

A low woody herb for sunny edges, between pavers, and herb-garden borders with pollinator-friendly summer flowers.

A low, drought-loving Mediterranean herb grown for its woolly silver-grey rosettes of soft, felted leaves and its stiff summer spikes of small, soft-yellow flowers cupped in densely woolly bracts - the plant known as Greek mountain tea or ironwort. It is a tough alpine and rock-garden subject that wants hot, dry, very sharply drained ground and full sun, and rots in wet or rich soil; it is only borderline hardy. POWO (Kew) records Sideritis syriaca as native to the eastern Mediterranean - Crete, the Levant, and Türkiye. The dried leaves and flower spikes make the traditional caffeine-free Greek herbal infusion long valued as a folk remedy for colds and coughs, so it is parts-edible as a tea but is grown as a herb rather than a food crop. The soft-yellow summer spikes are a good bee plant.

Society garlic (Tulbaghia violacea) is a clump-forming perennial herb from South Africa grown for its long season of small, star-shaped lilac-pink flowers, carried in airy umbels on slender stems well above narrow, grassy, grey-green leaves from late spring into autumn. The foliage is garlic-scented, and the leaves and flowers are edible, used like garlic chives in South African cooking - the friendly name comes from its milder, more sociable garlic breath. It is an easy, drought-tolerant, long-flowering choice for sunny borders, edging, and containers, and a reliable bee and butterfly plant. Native to the Cape provinces and KwaZulu-Natal, it is reasonably hardy (to about USDA zone 7 with sharp drainage) but can be cut back or lost in a hard winter, and the garlic scent is reputed to deter some insect pests and even moles. RHS gives Tulbaghia violacea (and the cultivar 'Silver Lace') its Award of Garden Merit and rates it half-hardy (H3).

The true catnip: a bushy, aromatic, grey-green herbaceous perennial herb with toothed, downy, mint-like leaves and summer spikes of small white, purple-spotted flowers. POWO (Kew) gives its native range as across Europe and Asia, and it has naturalised worldwide. Its leaves carry nepetalactone, a powerful euphoric attractant for cats - roughly two-thirds of cats respond by rolling, rubbing, and chewing - so expect neighbourhood cats to flatten it; the same compound has documented repellent activity against mosquitoes and some insect pests. It is a tough, drought-tolerant, easy herb that self-seeds and can spread and flop, so cut it back hard after flowering for a fresh, tidier flush. It is hardy across USDA zones 3a-9b. RHS lists Nepeta cataria as a hardy aromatic herb for bees and culinary/herbal use and rates it fully hardy (H7). It is a traditional human herb too - catnip tea is a mild, calming infusion and the young leaves have culinary use - and a good bee and pollinator plant. Note this is the species catnip (Nepeta cataria), distinct from the sterile ornamental catmint hybrid Nepeta x faassenii.

A low-water edible palette of culinary herbs + a hardy grape for hot dry sunny sites. Mediterranean-origin plants thrive on neglect; their primary failure mode is overwatering, not underwatering.