It's All About Thyme

 Now is the exciting thyme for a thyme covered patio. We love the look.

We are not alone in our admiration of the thyme. If it is not raining, the thyme is buzzing with all kinds of bees. I would not want to walk barefoot in the thyme when it is flowering. The bees are busy, but self defense is another matter.

 

For years I have fervently weeded the thyme on the stone patios. I was determined keep the woolly thyme and the red creeping thyme separate. I have officially given up weeding the  thyme out of the thyme.

Here the darker pink flowers are my red creeping thyme. The light pink flowers belong to wild thyme. It was here when we came and grows in large patches all through the grass. You can smell it when you walk. It is the wild thyme that cascades off the edge of the patio. How can I argue with that?  Thyme is thyme. We will enjoy the flowers and the bees until the thyme begins to go to seed, then we will give the patio a short haircut with the weed whacker. If you want to keep your thyme in good condition , you have to cut it back after it flowers.

Patio Thyme

Becky's efforts planting tiny pieces of red creeping thyme are paying off. The far edge could use more plants but the rest of the patio has filled in nicely. Location is important in business and here. Sited at the west end of the house, the patio gets hand weeding when the heat of the sun drives Becky out of the garden. Fortunately the weeding was complete before the thyme flowered. Now the area is thick with bees.

There is still no cover to the top step. Several issues remain unsolved. A wooden deck would create a dandy den for skunks or other undesireable creatures. Who needs that right outside the door? Originally this door was served by field stone steps. A curve in the foundation wall suggested that the combination of frost and stones was caving in the wall. After the steps were removed I figured out the the foundation wall had been set with the curve in place. Nothing had moved.

Chemically treated green wood goes against my grain so the step remains uncovered. At this point I believe a field stone pillar in place of the wooden deck would make a better step. If that was done then perhaps the final grading would get some attention and we could actually use the thyme patio.

Weeding Thyme. Planting Too.

Ed started the morning working on the latest plant delivery. Having arrived in a somewhat tumbled condition, these plants needed immediate attention. Set upright and watered they had time in indirect light. Today they were repotted destined to spend the next frost filled month outside on the stone wall days and in the basement nights. I headed outside early, and spent the morning weeding. Eventually it got hot enough to send me looking for a shady spot to weed. We don't have much shade here, but the patio on the west end of the house is shaded mornings. What I want to grow in the spaces between the stones on this patio is red creeping thyme. This moss obviously has other ideas.




With persistence, and my reading glasses, I weeded out the moss, rescuing some tiny thyme plants in the process. This weeding project is just getting started,weeding this patio will be my sunny morning project for awhile. As noon approached my shade disappeared. Just as I was heading into the house for lunch, the mail arrived. Today's delivery included two boxes. Ed's potatoes arrived from Ronnigers. They look terrific! The other box was from McClure and Zimmerman. Most of those plants have already been placed in the shade garden. What a joy it is to have the planting space ready and waiting when the plants arrive! It should always be that way I know, but in the middle of winter, surrounded by gorgeous plant catalogs, we frequently lose our heads. Somehow we think when May arrives we will be ready. Ready or not, May is here and plants are arriving. Gardening in May is so full of possibilities!

Thyme To Cut Back

When your thyme plants look like this it's time to cut them back. This plant still has a few flowers, but most of them have gone to seed. This is a nice, relatively new, red creeping thyme plant. It's out by itself and not mixed with the woolly , lemon and wild thyme.I have places where the cuttings go to the compost because the thymes are all mixed together. It's hard enough to separate the types without planting them that way.




Instead of putting all these red creeping thyme seeds in the compost, I spread them on the areas of the newly renovated patio where I want this particular thyme to grow. Any new seedlings that come up in the spring will be a welcome sight!

Past Thyme To Weed The Patio

When Ed heads out to the garden in the morning, I'm never exactly sure what I will find him doing when I get out there. With all the rain we have been getting, the ground is very wet, too wet to work in the beds. He decided today was the day to "weed" this stone patio. I checked and this stone patio was laid just about fifteen years ago. Once the red creeping thyme was established, it looked fantastic for at least ten. Small weeds were pulled as soon as they appeared.

Eventually the thyme completely covered the stones. Somewhere along the line the sheep sorrel and meadow grasses crept in from the edges both between and under the stones. This kind of weeding is really hard work. The stones are being lifted and the weeds removed. When all that is finished, the stones will be reset and red creeping thyme will be planted again.




This is the stone patio on the west end of the house. It has the stones - with - thyme - planted - between - them look that we are trying to recapture. The hard work that Ed is doing is a not so subtle reminder for me keep this patio weeded while the weeds are still small.





Red creeping thyme flowing like water from between the stones is a sight to behold. It's certainly worth doing a little weeding!

Spring Thyme and Stones

Red creeping thyme leaves are beautifully red when the snow melts. Once things warm up and the sun shines on the plants, the leaves will turn back to a beautiful dark green. I can't be sure, but I really think this plant grew larger under the snow. I don't remember it's cascading down through the stones like this last fall.

This photograph was taken before the rain. It is raining pretty hard. I can hear geese flying overhead. Apparently they don't mind getting wet. Rain will take away the snow and more of the garden will begin to show. Of course the soil is way to wet to do anything, but with Ed's stone paths we can walk in the garden and inspect everything. Probably the glimpse will be brief because I know we haven't seen our last snow storm. I can remember a snowstorms in mid- May here. Still it's great to get a chance to look in on old plant friends and make plans . Finally February is finished for another year!

Thyme for a Trim

We went out to the garden early this morning. After last night's thunder storms everything is wet, the humidity and temperature are up there. Ed went to pick blueberries and I started in cutting back things that are finished, and pulling all those weeds that seem to be growing and going to seed before my very eyes.

When the sun got to be too much, I went to work in the shade. We don't have a lot of shade here, but in the morning the patio on the west end of the house is in the shade. I'm trying to get red creeping thyme started there. I got the clippers and gave the plants a close trim. Thyme plants need to be cut back after flowering to keep them in shape. In past years I put the thyme clippings in the compost. This time I had one of those light-bulb-over-your-head moments. I weeded the remaining places where I want the time to grow, and spread the thyme clippings there.

Planting seeds where you want plants to grow is hardly a new idea. I've been moving chervil and dill around the garden that way for years. I just make a nice place in the dirt and lay the seed heads there. It works like a charm. Let's hope it works for the thyme. It would be so much easier than transplanting little plants.