Thyme has been celebrated for its beneficial properties and pleasing flavors for centuries. Here’s everything you need to know about thyme plants and their benefits- everything from how to grow them and use them in your favorite recipes!
Thyme is very aromatic and smells just like summertime. If summer could be captured in one single scent, I’m sure it would be thyme.
The herb is a staple of many different Mediterranean cuisines as well as many seasoning blends used around the world. It lends a subtle, savory flavor to any recipe and tastes especially amazing in soups, poultry, and roasted dishes.
Thyme is part of the Thymus genus of the mint family (Lamiaceae), which contains dozens of species, all of which are native to the Mediterranean region of the world. All thyme plants are woody, low-growing shrubs that have small round leaves and beautiful small blooms.
It’s important to note that thyme is a broad category, comprising two types of varieties:
- Ornamental
- Culinary
There are far more ornamental varieties than culinary, so keep an eye out for that when purchasing your thyme plants!
The top three culinary varieties of thyme plants are:
- Lemon
- Caraway
- French
Benefits of thyme
Thyme provides many different benefits, such as:
- Relieve anxiety
- Enhance mental clarity
- Reduce inflammation and pain
- Calm respiratory problems
- Relieve mild gastrointestinal problems
- Help prevent acne
- And more
Growing Thyme Plants
This hardy perennial is drought-tolerant, pollinator-friendly, and evergreen in most hardiness zones. Growing thyme is very simple because the plant thrives on neglect.
Brown thumb gardeners: this is your plant!
Growing Needs
Thyme plants prefer hot, dry conditions over cool, moist growing areas. Give your plant these conditions then leave it alone so it can thrive.
- Hardiness zone: 4-9 (insulate it with mulch for winters in zones 4-6)
- When to plant: Plant directly into the ground or in a container after the last frost
- Light: Full sun
- Soil: Sandy/Loamy
- Fertilizing: Fertilizer isn’t needed and could cause rapid growth while sacrificing flavor
- Watering: Water once the top inch of soil dries out. Prevent the soil from getting too wet
- Flowers: small purple, pink, or white flowers
- Spacing: Space plants 12-24 inches apart. If you want to grow thyme in a container, you can leave it outside all winter and let it enter a dormant state until the weather warms back up.
Popular Varieties Of Thyme Plants
There are many varieties of thyme plants you can grow. However, there are really only a few that are suitable for use in food, and all of them have a subtle minty flavor as part of their flavor profile.
French Thyme
One of the most well-known varieties, French thyme (Thymus vulgaris) has strongly aromatic gray-green evergreen leaves that taste amazing in many different dishes. The dominant component, thymol, has a strong scent and is also used in Vicks VapoRub, but don’t let that deter you from cooking with it!
Lemon Thyme
Lemon thyme (T. x citriodorus) is a popular culinary herb thanks to the citrus aroma and flavor that comes from its two main components: geranial and neral. Include lemon thyme’s dark green leaves with mild-tasting ingredients for a boost of flavor.
Caraway Thyme
Another popular culinary herb, caraway thyme (T. herba-barona) has a flavor reminiscent of caraway and tastes amazing in bread recipes, sauerkraut, as well as seasoning greens. Caraway thyme is a very low-growing plant that spreads out rather than up!
Woolly Thyme
Woolly thyme (Thymus pseudolanuginosus) is an ornamental variety that has no scent and creates a low-growing “carpet.” It’s perfect for growing in rock gardens.
Creeping Thyme
Creeping thyme (Thymus praecox) is another ornamental variety that boasts lovely lavender, magenta, or white flowers. True to its name, this variety spreads quickly making it an excellent ground cover.
Ideal Growing Locations
Thyme plants are pretty fuss-free, drought-tolerant, and actually thrive on neglect. As long as you grow it in a location where it gets plenty of sunlight, very well-draining, sandy soil, and occasional water, it should do very well.
Grow it in:
- In rock gardens or around landscape ponds
- Anywhere you want a sun-loving groundcover
- In containers where you can leave them through the winter to go dormant
- As a companion plant near cabbage, tomatoes, strawberries, broccoli, and eggplant
- Indoors as an indoor herb
Keeping Thyme Plants Healthy
These plants are extremely low maintenance and don’t have much at all to worry about when it comes to pests or disease. On the other hand, however, thyme helps attract beneficial insects like ladybugs which eat aphids.
Harvesting thyme
You can harvest thyme anytime by snipping off little bits at a time to use as needed.
As with other plants in the mint family, harvest it just before the flowers bloom for optimal aroma and flavor.
Storing And Preserving thyme
Thyme is most flavorful when you use it immediately, but you can preserve it in other ways to use all year.
If you want to dry your thyme, tie bunches of cuttings together and hang them upside down for a week or two. After the leaves are dried out, remove them from the stems and store them in a dark cupboard.
Freeze thyme leaves by removing them from the sprigs then put a few into ice cube tray compartments. Add water to each compartment until it’s full, then freeze. Add your frozen “flavor bombs” to your recipes as you cook.
Propagating Thyme Plants
Like many other mint plants, thyme seeds can be challenging to germinate, so I recommend growing thyme from cuttings.
Here’s how to propagate thyme:
- Trim off a 4-inch cutting of growth from an established plant.
- Remove the leaves on the bottom 2 inches of the cutting and dip the cut tip into rooting powder. Place it into sterile sand.
- It will take about 6 weeks for roots to grow. At that point, plant the cutting into a small pot until a root ball forms.
- Once a root ball has formed, transplant your cutting into a larger pot or directly in the garden outside.
Ways To Use Thyme Plants
Thyme plants are more than just a summery aroma and savory flavor. The herb has been valued for centuries for its medicinal and ornamental uses in addition to its culinary benefits.
Here are a few ideas of ways to use your thyme plants…
In History
Thyme has a rich history of uses! Here are just a few to give you an idea:
- The ancient Egyptians used thyme in their embalming process and to help the dead pass on to the next life.
- Ancient Romans believed it was an antidote to poison.
- In the Middle Ages, soldiers were given bouquets with thyme in them to give them courage.
- For centuries, thyme has been prized for its antiseptic properties and used when bandaging wounds to prevent infection.
In Cooking
Using thyme as an aromatic herb in recipes is one common modern-day way to use it. Use thyme with:
- Teas
- Bread
- Casseroles
- Pasta
- Soups
- Stews
- Crackers
- Marinades
- Chicken, pork, and fish recipes
- Pair it with foods such as carrots, cabbage, corn, eggplant, potatoes, onions, garlic, oregano, parsley, and rosemary!
Aromatherapy
Add aromatic thyme to your diffuser for a terrific mid-afternoon pick-me-up and a boost of mental alertness. Additionally, it can calm down a cough as well.
DIY Body And Home Products
Thyme has long been prized for its many antibacterials, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial medicinal properties. Try adding it to many DIY body and home products such as:
- Toners
- Shampoos
- Soaps
- Lotions and creams
- Sugar scrubs
- Body scrubs
- Shower steamers
- Air fresheners
- Essential oils
- Mosquito and insect repellents
If you enjoy using thyme in the kitchen, learning how to grow thyme plants is the next step to add superior flavor to your cooking, in addition to enjoying the many other benefits thyme plants offer!
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