Grow thyme for health this year
The question is, have I started my garden?
Yes, below the sparkly cold snow and frost I have started the perennial thyme (thymus vulgaris). And thyme has been good to me.
It has become the edging of choice in my flower beds because it spreads in a slowly and densely to create an attractive low, tough border that snuffs out most weeds and prevents erosion of soil.
The fact that it grows in poor soils should be a boon to most folks.
I live in Minnesota. Could you survive out in the open in this minus 20 degree weather? Thyme can!
Every year in the spring my thyme remains productive.
I started a patch of thyme outdoors in the spring from one small plant.
You can start it from seed or just buy a healthy looking plant. Plant it in really good fertile soil and give it lots of room to spread over the summer.
It should at least quadruple in size. Once it begins quadrupling you may part out this plant and distribute it along edges and border.
Just cut through one of the sides of the mother plant with a shovel and get the roots as well.
It is a tough plant and you will notice a sharp edge is need on your shovel to accomplish this task, and don’t worry, the thyme will survive.
Now distribute the thyme to other garden spots as you please. Thyme will grow even in poor soils.
Most plants will need an inch of water a week, and thyme is no exception.
But thyme is neither finicky. Throughout the summers I give my thyme “haircuts” whenever flowers begin developing on them.
I do this so that the plant will send a message to the roots to keep spreading.
But you don’t have to. If you like the flowers, by all means then, leave them be.
If you’ve never grown a garden of any kind, growing thyme is a great place to start getting herb garden experience.
I prefer to have free herbs right at my fingertips in the kitchen, so I take a short walk to my herb garden just outside the door. Nothing beats fresh!
If you are not the outdoorsy type, growing indoors is nice because you can grow year-round and don’t have to worry about pests or the elements.
It’s also nice to have fresh plants in your home and the aromatic fragrance of fresh herbs is soothing and refreshing.
With all the benefits of herbs and the delicious uses for them, why not start using them today?
Grow herbs for your health starting today and stay healthy, happy and well.
The bounty of the harvest can be placed on a sheet on aluminum foil to sun dry, or I dry it on a smoker rack of the grill.
Of course the bounty goes into the spice rack in the kitchen from there.
I would call my stock of thyme at this time years later in the jillions of plants, seriously folks…
The simplest way to use more herbs (and get more healthy, is to grow your own herb garden.
When you grow herbs for your health, you may notice an improvement in both your physical and mental well-being.
You will likely find benefits beyond physical health by planting and tending an herb garden.
Throughout the ages, people have found herbs to benefit the mind, body and soul.
Throughout history there are documented accounts of herbs curing illness and injury.
Why not take advantage and grow herbs for your health?
This perennial and small shrub grows well in pot or garden.
It has spread into the yard and actually is nice to walk barefoot on.
This next year I am starting the wonderfully aromatic orange thyme to plant in places I walk on.
My gardening feet can hardly wait!
Stepping on a carpet of thyme is a sheer delight, and a this type of ground cover does not mind.
Instead, it releases a fragrance of spice to please your senses.
Not only is it pleasant to walk on between the stepping-stones they withstand the hot sun, drying winds and will thrive in those hard to mow spots where a touch of green is needed.
Of the many thyme, the best two known species are common thyme and mother-of-thyme or creeping thyme.
Common thyme, consisting of little shrubby bushes, is grown for culinary uses.
Creeping thyme, is used for ground cover on banks, between stepping-stones and as turf.
The creeping thyme, sometimes called wild thyme, are favored for their fragrance and gray-green carpet.
Some of the best of these plants grow under two inches high.
Examples are; Woolly thyme, low green foliage with dainty pink blooms.
Golden thyme, purple flowers and low dark green leaves mottled with gold.
Crimson thyme, small, flat, dark green leaves and crimson flowers – White thyme, delicate and slow spreading, with tiny flat, vivid green leaves and white flowers.
Nutmeg thyme is gray and wooly with hairy stems, coarse leaves and pink flowers, and really spreads.
These are sun-loving plants and are easily grown in well-drained soil.
It requires very little clipping, training or transplanting.
Most are hardy over much of the country, but in very cold areas it must be provided with mulch for winter protection.
Propagation is pretty easy, especially with the creeping, stem rooting types, just break off a stem with a root and plant.
One of the most enjoyable pleasures you’ll get from planting creeping thyme is stepping on it.
This living green carpet will surely delight you with its fragrance.
Lovely to look at and
walk on it, and enjoy, and just do it.
And guess what? Thyme is good for toenail fungus, but more about the health properties of thyme in an article to come…
By Jill Johnson
Copyright 2014 Jill Annette Johnson www.jilljj.com All Rights Reserved
