It doesn’t matter which variety of thyme you choose to grow, they all have a woody, twig like stem and little oval-shaped leaves.  In early summer or late spring, depending on where you live, your plant will bloom with little pink, purple or white colored blooms.

Among the many varieties, here are 3 you’ll probably want to know:

• Common Thyme: This type of thyme is the one that fills most of the small spice containers you can get at the grocery store.  This variety is taller than the others and is great to bake with because of the strong aroma and taste.  Among the common thymes there are at a minimum 3 kinds, which you can tell by examining at the leaves.  You will find that the French kind has narrow leaves as opposed to the German which has wide leaves, and then there is the English variety which has variegated leaves.

• Lemon Thyme: The smell of lemon thyme is evident in its name.  If you cannot figure that one out you might want to choose another hobby.  Yes, lemon thyme has a strong lemon aroma that you can’t miss.  Some kinds of lemon thyme even have tiny yellow flowers.

• Wild Thyme: This variety of thyme is not usually planted for use in cooking, so do not assume that every thyme plant is the same.  If you are seeking an interesting ground cover, this is a great place to start.

Cooking with thyme is as simple as clipping off a few leaves and tossing them to your other ingredients.  Thyme does well with pruning and there’s no better way to prune your thyme than to harvest some leaves for a yummy meal.  If your abilities are not found in cooking, you can still use your thyme to make health and beauty products.  You can use it in soaps and lotions, add a small bit in your bathwater or use it to make an sweet smelling potpourri.

The old folks will say to use it to cure several different ailments such as sleeplessness, gas, asthmatic breathing, headaches, poor digestion and coughing.  I guess it basically can do anything but bring in the mail.

Thyme is one of the easiest plants to raise.  It will succeed indoors or outside and does well in well-drained, rich dirt and full-sun.  Because it takes a long time to germinate your plant (a long thyme), I would suggest that you drive over to the discount store and pick up a few plants for your garden.  This plant has a nice ornamental quality and looks nice in an outdoor rock garden, on a patio or along a stone fence.

If you’d rather dry your thyme for use over the winter than bring your plant indoors, just snip off each branch at the stem and hang it upside down to dry.

It’s generally a sensible idea to store the seeds from your thyme herb.  These seeds will still germinate for up to 3 years.

Good luck with your herb gardening. Be sure to let me know how your herb garden grows.

Here is more information on Herb Garden Plants. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Herb Gardens.