Time for another delightful herb to grow in the Southwest – thyme. It’s pretty, relatively low water, good for pollinators, and useful in the kitchen. What’s not to love?!

There are many other herbs I have discussed on this site, indeed, “Herbs” ia one category you can search on this site. It’s May as I write this, if I were you, I would focus on some heat-loving herbs, like the “natural Bean-o” called epazote, basil, Sonoran desert native aloysia, and now thyme.

Overview of Thyme

Thyme is a large and very popular genus, with over 350 species and countless cultivars grown around the world. Aside from looking lovely in the landscape, it is used in cooking, and has some proven medicinal properties as well. Note that there are even native North American species of thyme. There is one called mountain thyme that grows in the sandy soils on my ancestors graves in the mountains of Vermont. Most American thyme do not have the same flavor as the thyme from the Mediterranean used in cooking.

How to Grow Thyme

Culinary thymes are native to the rocky slopes of the mountains of the eastern Mediterranean region, in the area that is now mostly Greece. Since they are pre-adapted to low water conditions, most species of thyme can be grown here in the Southwest. More Greek plants to grow here.

Earth

Make sure your plants are in well-drained soil. Add some sand if you must. I killed several thyme plants until I had finally added enough sand to their bed. If you are growingthem in containers, then “cactus mix” from the nursery works well as a potting soil. It is roughly one quarter sand.

Fire (Sunlight)

In the Southwest deserts, grow your thyme where they will get some shade. The plant tags, seed packets, and all tell you “full sun” but that is not Southwest desert sun. Thyme is from an area near the ocean where humidity is around 40 to 50 percent. When there is little humidity in the air, the sunlight is much more intense.

Air

This is another reason for some shade. It will help keep the plants cool. They are not expecting 100 degree heat for 100 days in a row. Filtered light at the edge of a palo verde tree, or the shade offered by the east or north facing walls of a house also work well.     You can also grow thyme indoors in bright, indirect light.

Water

When you first plant thyme, especially as a rooted plant in good nursery soil, make sure you water it every day, like it is used to. They were pampered pets at the nursery. I’m not telling you to not pamper your plants, just to train them to stand on their own two feet as it were.

After two weeks, water every other day, and keep decreasing this over time. My landscape thymes get watered once a week in summer.

Choosing the Right Thyme

There are many thymes to choose from, but here are some of the species most commonly found in a nursery.

Common or culinary thyme (Thymus vulgaris) is a low woody plant barely 8 inches tall. It can become “leggy” – with bare wood showing – so harvest and use or dry your herbs often. You can easily give jars of dried herbs as distinctive and useful gifts.

Creeping thyme (Thymus praecox) makes an attractive and useful ground cover. It is culinary too! Harvest as needed.

Lemon thyme (Thymus X citriodorus) is a delicious and fragrant low-growing variety with glossy green leaves, and goes wonderfully with fish dishes. 

Equally fragrant and delicious is the golden lemon thyme (Thymus X citriodorus ‘Aureus’). With wonderfully variegated leaves, it looks good in the landscape.

Not generally used as culinary herbs, two popular species of creeping thyme are useful in the landscape. Mother-of-thyme (Thymus serpyllum) and woolly thyme (Thymus pseudolanginosis) both grow well between shady flagstones, and smell great when stepped on.  

Using Thyme

Thyme is an exquisite herb that can be used fresh or dried in soups, salads, on meat dishes, in herb breads, to make herb butter, infused into vinegar for a dressing, the list is near endless.

I like this filling soup for a quick meal at the end of a long day.  It also helps replenish electrolytes. Sopa de Farigola, a dish popular in the Catalonia region of northeastern Spain, and served in some parts of Mexico still today.

More Herbs

More on growing and cooking with thyme in this book – Father Kino’s Herbs: Growing and Using Them Today (Tierra del Sol Institute Press).

The review says:

“Award-winning garden writer Dr. Jacqueline A. Soule has pulled together a fascinating book on the life of Father Eusebio Francisco Kino and some of the plants that he brought to Southern Arizona and northwestern Sonora, and area called the Pimeria Alta.”

This link is to my secure book-selling site and if you buy the book there the local Arizona Horticulture Therapy non-profit Tierra del Sol Institute will get a few pennies – at no extra cost to you.

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