This makes it a good choice for a beginner who just wants some plant coverage for their yard without having to spend a lot of time just to take care of it.Ĭreeping thyme smells like mint and can be used for teas or tinctures. The plant needs very little care and is extremely easy to grow. It can also be used for walkways, pathing, bordering, or to put some pink in an otherwise bare spot in your garden. It’s so dense that many people use it as a substitute for their lawn entirely. It sticks close to the surface with tiny flowers and will form dense mats of foliage. This is a thyme plant- an evergreen, hardy plant with some lightly haired leaves and stems. They flower in the spring and summer, which is good for brightening up your yard. They do well in moderate climates and are low-growing. They have a pleasant scent and can be grown as herbs and used in recipes. Stemming from Southern Europe, this full sun herbaceous perennial loves to crawl and will give you plenty of leaves, flowers, and cheer! (By Susan Harris, Flickr, CC BY 2.0.)Ĭreeping thyme is a low crawling, versatile ground cover flowering plant that’s a good choice for adding some color to your garden. Some people mow the thyme lawn after the flowers have faded, but it’s fine to be lazy and leave the area unattended.Creeping thyme’s pretty pink flowers. A good distance to space the thyme plugs is 8 inches (20 cm).Īfter that, you may stop fertilizing, thatching, watering often, and even mowing. Make sure the thyme plants are wet before planting. Since thyme has short roots, add some compost and bone meal to the soil when ready to be worked, working it into a depth of around 6 inches (15 cm). After the procedure, till the area and remove any substantial rocks or roots before trying to transplant the thyme plugs. Since it takes two seasons to totally kill off the top and much longer to extract all the roots, this procedure demands patience. The goal is to suffocate the plants by blocking all light to the grass and weeds below. Last, you may always create a lasagna garden by enclosing the space with cardboard, black plastic, or many layers of newspaper covered in straw or sawdust. The next choice is the traditional, labor-intensive method of digging up the sod. Of course, there’s always the quick and not very environmentally friendly option of using several herbicide applications. It takes some work to get rid of all the grass already there. The labor required to prepare the ground makes employing thyme instead of grass the main issue. How to Plant Thyme as an Alternative to Lawn Try the following varieties on your thyme lawn:īy planting a different kind of thyme along the border of the faux lawn, you may also switch types or make patterns. The majority of thyme types can withstand little foot traffic. Most people use creeping thyme to cover patio pavers and walks, smaller spaces than the typical grass. That’s probably why I often only observe a few patches of spreading thyme lawn. Establishing a creeping thyme lawn with plants spaced 6 to 12 inches (15-31 cm) apart may be expensive, but if you’ve considered reseeding or installing sod for an entire turf lawn, the cost is somewhat equal. The price of using thyme as a lawn replacement is a drawback. Thyme also blooms in a profusion of lavender-hued blossoms that lasts for a long time as an extra benefit. It can be walked on, is hardy to USDA zone 4, and spreads quickly to fill an area. In addition to drought tolerance, creeping thyme often uses much less water than conventional turf grasses. Why is thyme a great alternative to grass, and how can you utilize it as a replacement for a lawn? Let’s investigate. Thyme is a great option as a grass substitute. The water-hungry grass is being replaced with plants that can withstand drought by many gardeners. We are using less water, thus xeriscaping is becoming more and more popular.
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