Thyme Plant in a Pot

Thyme is one of the easiest herb to grow and the hardest one to get ride of once you get it started!

It is related to the mint family which is why it is so hardy.  Some varieties of thyme that are in my garden last all winter long, other’s get kind of crunchy so I just trim them all the way back to where you see the healthy flexible stalks.

It thrives in a hot sunny location and doesn’t require much water once it’s established. The low growing varieties are great if you place them between flagstones for a walkway… it will squeeze out the weeds and discourages ants…. I assume they don’t like the smell. The creeping types really added great character to my new rather bland garden walls.  (I’ll post my before and after photo’s once the snow clears)

I love to use it fresh in a variety of dishes and it’s one of the herbs that keeps it’s flavor even after it dries. See some of my favorite recipes at my cooking site Chrissy Cooks!

There are many varieties and each has a fabulous flavor, color and different growing habits. The more you cut it back, the bushier and healthier it gets so trim it up regularly for cooking.  I love the scent of fresh herbs in my kitchen so I’ll gather them up as I’m cutting flowers to bring indoors for my bouquets.

There are a bunch of different type of thyme including:

• English thyme — the most common
• Lemon thyme — smells of lemons
• Variegated lemon thyme — with bi-colour leaves
• Orange thyme — an unusually low-growing, ground cover thyme that smells like orange
• Creeping thyme — the lowest-growing of the widely used thymes, good for walkways
• Silver thyme — white/cream variegate
• Summer thyme — unusually strong flavor
• Purple thyme — This is the variety I have grown and creeping down my garden bricks

I love to plant thyme along pathways where you bump against it as you wander by which releases the fresh scents. I also found interesting history and medicinal uses for Thyme at Wikipedia