Organic Thyme Growing Guide
Here at Montrouch we have slowly built up quite a good range of organic Thyme.
Thyme is one of the ubiquitous plants of the Garrigues, the wild scrub that spreads over old disused agricultural land and the cleared forests of Les Corbieres.
There is no magic tricks to growing organic thyme, get them in the right soil for there characteristics, they vary as outlined below, and the right exposition for their tastes, see below, water them occasionally until the root ball is established and clip them back after flowering to preserve their shape, stop them getting too woody and aid new shoots in Spring and there you go, beautiful organic thyme to enjoy their perfume, flowers and of course taste.
Organic Thyme vulgaris, the silver leafed, woody with white flowers Garrigue thyme loves the poor soil
of our hills sides, it supports the long hot summers by effectively sleeping through them, while Summer is it’s dormant stage Winter and Spring sees it transformed, if there has been rain it can push through new, green leafed growth, and Spring sees a carpet of white flowers. As the heat builds the new green leafed shoot slowly change colour to silver as the leaves naturally transform themselves to limit water loss.
Organic Spanish Thyme Thymus Mastichina is another silver leafed Thyme that grows very well in the
Mediterranean climate. Unlike Thyme Vulgaris which grows in dense clumps Thyme Mastichina is a leggy plant with big fluffy white flowers. The perfume of the sun concentrated essential oils is incredible.
Organic Thyme Serpolet Thymus Serpyllum, Breckland Thyme, is a green leafed ground cover variety. Another thyme that t
thrives in poor soil, it rarely grows higher than three centimeters in height making it ideal to plant in the gaps in stone paths. It does not mind being walked on. It gives lovely little rose or lilac coloured flowers. Down here in the Languedoc it is used to sooth sore throats in a tea with honey and lemon, and a drop of Calvados if you are feeling a little fed up.
Organic Thyme de Cevennes,Thymus nitens is another great ground cover thyme. It supports full sunshine and loves poor
soil. It has beautiful blue flowers in Springtime, dies back a little in the hottest months to re-shoot back in Autumn; Find the hoest place in your garden, with poor soil and cover it with these,They grow to around a square meter in two years so leave a little space. They will need watering once a week in the first Summer until the root base is well established. Waer round them to encourage root growth, not on their heads.
Organic Ordinary Thyme , English Thyme is a variety of Thyme vulgaris. The standard Thyme familiar to
English gardens, green leafed with a delicate flavour. Down here in Les Corbieres it is a good idea to plant this in a shady area as it struggles with the afternoon sun in the Summer.It has a higher water requirement than the Thymes listed above but it’s taste in food makes it really worth the effort.
Organic Winter Thyme, Very similar to the above. Another Thyme vulgaris. Whereas I find most thyme
has two dormant periods per year the height of Summer and mid Winter this one seems to just keep growing in winter, hence it’s name. It has delicate pink flowers.
Organic Lemon Thyme, Thymus citriodorus, is a lovely little thyme that as well as tasting of thyme has a
hint of lemon in there. Like Ordinary Thyme and Winter Thyme best protected from the heat of the afternoon.
Organic Thymus Ciliatus, Moroccan Wild Thyme
Organic Thymus ciliatus is a classic carpet ground cover plant for a dry garden, often used to create grassless “lawns”. Thymus ciliatus is a mat-forming, evergreen subshrub with tiny, ovate to broadly lance-shaped, densely hairy, grey-green leaves and, from May , whorls of small, two-lipped, pink flowers with dark purple calyces. It grows between 2 and 8cm high, depending if it is walked on. For a more detailed guide see here, Thymus Ciliatus
Growing Organic Thyme.
Thyme is a pretty hardy plant, once it’s root base is established, which takes a good 12 months, is usually good for 8 to 9 years. However, like Rosemary, Sage and Lavender if it is not clipped back after it has flowered Thyme can get leggy and the stems woody. It is therefore a good idea, after the first 12 months to clip it back. The leaves can be dried, or infused in olive oil, and will keep their flavour for a good 3-6 months. It is a good idea to dry them in the shade as that way they keep their colour and are more attractive in food, if they have too much light when drying they tend to go an unattractive grey.
As I said at the start of this article there is no magic tricks to growing organic thyme, it pretty much grows by it’s own. Northern thymes like Lemon Thyme, Winter and Ordinary Thyme like a richer soil than the ground cover so a bit of compost or manure in Autumn is not a bad thing every couple of years.
Thyme can be grown from seeds, takes 14 to 21 days to germinate in my polytunnel. I sow in late Winter, late February and March. Tip clippings in Spring seem to work very well, especially if planted in a rich cutting soil like Orgasyl. The ground cover thymes Thyme Serpyllum and Latifolia throw out horizontal shoots in Spring, these can easily be pinned down and wihtin a month grow roots so you can clip them off from the mother plant and repot. Diision of most thymes is possible, I don’t tend to do it, as frankly I don’t need to.
Thyme can be planted at anytime really but like lost garrigue plants the optimal moment, I was going to say time but that doesn’t really work, is late Autumn, end of October November. That way the plant has all Winter and Spring to develop a good root ball to help it survive Summer. Depending in the year you may still have to give it a little water once a week if the first Summer is really dry/ Water around it not on it’s head. If you plant thyme at any other time, spring, Summer or in the heart of Winter it will need some water the first year until those roots are well established.
Culinary uses of Organic Thyme
The culinary uses of thyme are so many and varied that I am not going to even start writing them up, it would take weeks and weeks. All I will say is that a winter stew without thyme is not a stew, we make our own herbs de provence with thyme, winter savoury, rosemary. It also is a great flavour when infused with olive oil and spread on bread or salads.
Medicinal uses of Organic Thyme
I am no Doctor so I will just pinch this from Wikipedia’s thyme page. I can vouch for the benefits of Thyme tea with honey, helps me with my smoker’s cough.
Oil of thyme, the essential oil of common thyme (Thymus vulgaris), contains 20–54% thymol.[8] Thyme essential oil also contains a range of additional compounds, such as p-cymene, myrcene, borneol, and linalool.[9] Thymol, an antiseptic, is an active ingredient in various commercially produced mouthwashes such as Listerine.[10] Before the advent of modern antibiotics, oil of thyme was used to medicate bandages.[2] It has also been shown to be effective against various fungi that commonly infect toenails.[11Thymol can also be found as the active ingredient in some all-natural, alcohol-free hand sanitizers.
A tisane made by infusing the herb in water can be used for coughs and bronchitis.[8]3