Creeping Thyme / Thymus praecox

Thymus praecox 'Pink Chintz'
From High Country Gardens in spring 2018
Added many more from the Waterwise plant sale in May 2018, again in 2019 and 2020.

Photos

Expectations:

Slow to get started and it wants some depth of soil and water at first. 

It could look like this

I wanted this thyme to spread out to cover the curve of metal edging between the garage side garden and the gravel in the middle of the back yard. It's a nice groundcover, fragrant and suited to this climate, but the only reason I planted it was to hide the edging. 

By year 4 it should start to spread well. Some examples show a wide river of color.

Experiences:

I made this a big project -- bought lots and lots of plugs, watered constantly, took out a ton of stone edging bricks above and just below the surface, added compost, added fine gravel. 

All to get the thyme to cover over the annoying metal edging. 

Finally, in 2021 it began to spread out and looked healthy and green. A little bit was even going out over the edging in a few places.

Then . . 

I took it all out when we removed the Spanish broom and redesigned the area. I put it at the base of the birdbath and it spread nicely. In 2022 and 2023 it anchored the circle around the birdbath, with other things interplanted in it.

Blooming in spring and early summer 2023

It bloomed beautifully from May into July. After that, and after shearing the spent blooms, it formed a nice mat. I can dig up the edges and rearrange the shape of the circle easily, filling in spots and limiting some of the spread in other spots.