Growing Thyme in Your Herb Garden

Call me crazy, but if you do not have thyme growing in your garden you can’t call the place an herb garden.  There are many ways to use this necessary plant.  It doesn’t hurt that there are more than 100 unique varieties with tempting flavors and aromas.

All of the varieties of thyme share similar characteristics including leaves shaped like ovals and a twig like, woody stem.  In early summer or late spring, based on your climate, your herb will bloom with small pink, lavender or pale white colored blooms.

It is helpful to be familiar with the following 3 varieties of thyme:

• Common Thyme: When you buy thyme at the grocery store, this is the type that you’ll generally be getting.  This type is bigger than the others and is great to bake with because of the bold smell and taste.  You can examine the leaves of this vaiety of thyme to determine which of the following three varieties it is.  You can find that the French variety has thin leaves as opposed to the German which has very broad leaves, and then there is the English variety which has variegated leaves.

• Lemon Thyme: You’ll have a hard thyme guessing what lemon thyme smells like.  If you cannot tell that that one out you might want to choose another hobby.  Yes, lemon thyme has a bold lemon scent that you cannot miss.  Some varieties of lemon thyme even have tiny pale yellow blossoms.

• Wild Thyme: This type of thyme isn’t usually planted for use in the kitchen, so don’t believe that every thyme plant is exactly the same.  If you are seeking an unusual ground cover, this is a great starting point.

Using thyme is not hard, just snip off a few leaves, dice them if necessary and add them in with your other ingredients.  Thyme thrives on pruning and there is no better way to prune your plant than to harvest some leaves for a fantastic entree.  If your talents are not found in the kitchen, you can still use your thyme to make cosmestic products.  Thyme can be used in anything from soaps and shampoos to potpourri or you can simply toss some in your bath.

According to the old folks, thyme has a lot of medicinal uses too, including helping with digestion, soothing a cough, easing asthmatic breathing, aiding with headaches, encouraging sleep and reducing flatulence.  It seems like thyme does everything but windows.

Raising thyme is a cinch.  This herb loves full-sun and well-drained, rich soil and can be grown indoors too.  Because it takes a long time to germinate your herb (a long thyme), I would suggest that you go over to the nursery and pick up a few plants for your herb garden.  For your outside thyme, try it in your rock garden or along a stone wall or over a rustic driveway.

If you would rather dry your thyme to use throughout the winter than bring your plant indoors, just snip off each branch at the stem and hang it upside down to dry.

Don’t neglect to harvest the seeds on your thyme herb.  Thyme seeds will still germinate for up to three years.

Good luck with your herb gardening. Be sure to let me know how your herb garden grows.

Here is more information on Herb Garden Plants. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Herb Gardens.