The Rural Voice, 1999-02, Page 35Gardening
Time to consider thyme for your garden
By Rhea Hamilton -Seeger
While pouring over seed
catalogues this past month I thought
back on the successes and failures of
the last growing season.
One of the wonderful successes
was the wooly thyme I planted along
the walkway and a variegated lemon
thyme along the pond edge. Both
flourished and offered texture and
aroma during the season. They never
seemed to show the ill effects of
drought conditions and were always a
treat to pet and to show new
gardeners the joy of scented plants in
the garden. I am so taken with them
that I am ordering a few more
varieties to play with.
Thyme is a native of the
Mediterranean regions and has been a
part of the culinary history of that
area for centuries. Thyme was a
symbol of courage for the Greeks and
they believed it had invigorating
properties. In the middle ages a piece
of thyme was given to the knights by
their ladies to keep up their spirits,
and a design depicting a sprig of
thyme was commonly embroidered
on the scarf offered as a farewell gift
to lord or lover before his departure
on a Crusade or other high enterprise.
Closer to our time, thyme has been
used to flavour meats, stews and
pasta dishes. It is used with tomato
and garlic to flavour any number of
foods and is used with parsley and
bay leaves in bouquet garni to flavour
stocks and broths.
Garden thyme (Thymus vulgaris)
is the cultivated form of
wild thyme
(Thymus
serphyllum). Known as mother of
thyme, probably because of its
traditional use for menstrual disorders
or for the more obvious reason as the
basis of other varieties, wild thyme
derives its Latin name from the
plant's serpent -like growth.
The wild thyme is a low growing
evergreen shrub with small highly
aromatic leaves and pale purple
flowers that are attractive to bees.
They rarely grow over eight inches
and love full sun and well -drained
soil touched with a bit of lime.
From these beginnings come over
400 varieties of thyme. There are
three basic varieties to start with:
English thyme or winter thyme has
broad dark green leaves while the
French or summer thyme has narrow
leaves, distinctly greyer in colour and
sweeter than the English; and then
there is lemon thyme (T. citriodorus)
which has a mild flavour with a
distinctly lemon fragrance. From
these come further varieties that boast
fragrances of caraway, coconut,
lavender, nutmeg and 'orange. The
leaves remain small but in varying
degrees of greens to greys and some
are golden or variegated. All rather
exciting.
Their compact bushy and carpet -
like growth makes them ideal for
rock gardens, edging perennial beds
and along walkways. Richters Herbs
of Goodwood has developed a lemon
carpet thyme that is the lowest yet,
and its wiry stems tolerate trampling
better than others.
Imagine it tucked
between your
paving
stones.
But there
is an even
more creative use. If you are craving
a knot garden
or a small formal garden with a
clipped look consider the lowly
thyme. You can lay out a pattern in
the garden and select different
varieties of thyme to hest show off
the design. The taller, upright hush
lemon thyme would be in the centre
surrounded by a pattern of variegated
and non -variegated thyme with the
carpet varieties along the outer edge.
Thyme enjoys being trimmed and
what you can't eat you can make new
plants with in a side bed. After four
years some of your plants may
become woody and straggling and
you may. want to replace some of the
plants with your new cuttings.
Thyme'grows in the same
conditions as lavender and oregano
and these may be two other plants to
consider working into your knot
garden pattern. You can start the
seeds indoors in April or right outside
after the frost has passed.
You can also buy plants and once
the plant is big enough you can
propagate by using clippings. Take
your cuttings in late spring or early
summer. You will need three or four
inches of shoot. Prepare a small plot
in semi -shade. Cover the plot with a
bit of sand and insert the cuttings into
this. Water them and allow the
foliage to dry and then cover them
with a cloche or small plastic cover.
It is recommended that you keep
them covered until spring. I myself
am too impatient and with our
dreadful gravel would have. to check
regularly to make sure they are not
drying out. By spring you will have a
lovely patch of new plants to move
into new spots.
One last tip. 'Thyme does not have
to be relegated to the flower or herb
beds. Thyme is a great companion
plant for cabbage since cabbage
worms find it so distasteful. Their
distaste is our delight.0
Rhea Hamilton -Seeger and her
husband raise two children at their
home near Auburn. She is a skilled
cook and gardener.
FEBRUARY 1999 31
■