WE ALL NEED MORE THYME

When you operate a large national display garden, weeding is not only a priority - but the biggest chore to deal with! That dilemma is what first intrigued me about incorporating many different ground covers into the garden. One of my all-time favorites now is Thymus. A member of the mint family, there are many varieties of thyme available to us - and they have been, at least for me, an easy-care, pest-free, attractive border plant for all twelve months of the year! The picture on the right illustrates how adaptable woolly thyme can be while crawling over rocks with no encouragement.

In the front of my property, I originally planted a kidney-shaped rose garden, with round concrete stepping stones through the center. Well - because of the rich organic soil in that bed, the chickweed went WILD around the stepping stones - to the point where I was ready to do away with the path! Every time I struggled to remove that annoying weed - I cursed! One day, I purchased three small pots of Thymus pseudolanuginosus, otherwise known as Woolly Thyme. Although I understood that this particular variety of thyme liked a soil that was not too rich, I thought I would take a chance anyway, since it was a sunny well-drained location that thyme does enjoy. It paid off! The thyme settled in and within three weeks had crept around the stepping stones, choking out the chickweed - I was a happy woman! Now the thyme is so vigourous that two or three times a year I have to cut it back from around the plants in the bed. In addition, when working in that bed, the thyme seems not to suffer from my kneeling on it - it's soft and my knees smell great when I get up!

Another favorite, and such an interesting variety, is Thymus 'Doone Valley'. This very hardy variety has wonderful deep green foliage in the summer, with a flush of tiny pink flowers - but when fall approaches is when it really attracts attention! With the coming of cooler weather, the tips of all the leaves turn bright gold - staying that way all through the winter, until the weather warms up again! And this little plant is TOUGH! I moved three large clumps of it in the middle of July one year, and they never even stopped blooming. I watered it really well for about a week after transplanting and it never dropped a leaf! As for transplanting - it's a very easy job. The root system is quite shallow, so when preparing an area to plant, I simply loosen the surface, place a patch of thymus on it, and pat it down!

Using a variety of different thymes in the garden has created some interesting borders along the front of the beds, as well as satisfying my requirements for keeping the weeds down. Raised beds, with landscape ties or stone also look wonderful with thyme gently flowing over the edges of the ties or rocks, softening the entire look of the garden. Low growing thymes come in a wide selection of foliage colors, from light to dark green, through the blue to silver shades, with flowers ranging from whites and pale pinks to lilac and deep purples. So try planting some thyme - it may save you quite a bit of the OTHER time!

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