Thyme was already popular in ancient times. We'll show you how to care for the herb when you grow it in your own garden.
Water the thyme
For the common thyme (Thymus vulgaris) a permeable location should be chosen - it does not like wet feet at all. Accordingly, it does not have to be watered often. The Mediterranean herb is even forgiving if you forget it for a few days even in the summer heat. In this case, it only punishes the gardener by stopping its growth. Even with a culture in a pot, the watering should not be exaggerated. Rather, it is important to plant the thyme in a substrate with a high proportion of draining sand (about 30%).
Fertilize thyme
Even the fertilization itself should be very restrained. But above all, nitrogen does not actually have to be added to the thyme. With excessive fertilization, the medicinal and aromatic herb tends to shoot through and leave its compact and creeping growth habit. From August onwards there should be no further fertilization anyway. Then the young tissue is not given enough time to mature before winter. Ultimately, this would lead to reduced frost resistance. All in all, even with pot culture, it is sufficient if the soil is improved with a bio-soil activator to stimulate soil life.
Cut Thyme
The shrub, which only reaches 10 to 40 cm, should be cut back to the woody part in early spring. This allows the compact form to persist and ensures that the woody part does not gain the upper hand. The aromatic leaves do not grow there. In addition, the pruning ensures a more compact and more branched growth of the plant. However, the pruning should definitely be done before the new growth. This is when the plant can put the most effort into developing new shoots. If the temperatures are too frosty, however, caution is advised: the cold can simply get through the openPenetrate interfaces and still cause late frost damage. This is much more tragic on a plant that has already been pruned than on a thyme that has not yet been pruned. This still has plenty of herbaceous shoots as a buffer against the cold.
Tip: You can already create the best conditions for your thyme when planting by using high-quality soil such as our peat-free organic herb & seed soil.