Grow and Care for Creeping Thyme

Grow creeping thyme as a walkable mat between stones, in full sun and grit. It is not a kitchen harvest.

Plant a walkable mat between stones, in full sun and grit

creeping thyme is grown as an ornamental groundcover. The leaves are fragrant, but this is not the cooking mound. [1] Iowa treats wild thyme and mother-of-thyme as path and rock plants that take drought and light foot traffic once they fill in. [2] Sun and drain are the same class as kitchen thyme, but the job is a carpet, not a harvest. Elfin is a tight form of the same mat. woolly thyme is the silver carpet — ornamental, not a cooking herb. [3] Pick the kind on Types of Thyme if the tag only says thyme.

How to plant creeping thyme between pavers

Clear the joints, add grit so water can leave, and set plugs with the crown at the soil line.

1. Choose a sunny path. Pull weeds and turf from the gaps. Joints need a few inches of soil, not dust over packed gravel.
2. If the soil stays wet, mix in coarse sand or fine gravel so the joints drain. Creeping thyme rots in a soggy crack. [4]
3. Set small plants 8 to 12 inches apart, or closer in a narrow joint if you want a faster fill. Keep the woody crown at the soil surface. Do not bury the stems.
4. Water to settle. Keep traffic off until the stems root, then water only when the soil is dry.

Keep foot traffic light, and shear after it flowers

Once the mat has knitted, walk it now and then. After bloom, shear spent flowers so the carpet stays low. Do not scalp it to bare wood. If you need to cut into gray stems, that method is on Pruning Thyme.

If the mat stays patchy, the joint is too wet or too shady — open the drainage and give it sun.