Thoughts on growing thyme?

Has anyone tried to grow thyme from seeds?

I have a bare dirt area that I want to plant with low ground covers. I can use cuttings from several types of plants in my yard and I recently received a large batch of creeping thyme seeds in a trade. My dilemma is how best to grow the thyme? I cannot sow the seeds directly because the area is currently occupied by a car that will be gone by spring. If I grow them in a tray all winter will they be big enough to transplant in the spring? I have room to put a tray in front of the garage window that gets sun in the afternoon or I can put them outside in a cold frame that gets more sun but is colder at night. Winter temps here average around 40-60° during the day and 15-20° at night, garage temp stays about 40° most of the winter.

I do have a lot of seeds so I guess I could experiment with different locations for the seedlings to see which grow the best.

fill a seed tray halfway with good potting soil, and water it in well. Then add at least 1/2 inch of sand over that. Sow the seeds onto the sand densely, and water again.

Set the tray outside where it won't be exposed to wind, direct sun is fine. By May you should have a mini lawn of thyme that you can cut into thyme "plugs" to insert wherever you want them. Thyme does really well in niches between pavers or rocks.

I was successful in wintersowing thyme..... thymus vulgaris I think, the ordinary cooking variety. It did extremely well and I got a number of large healthy plants that way. Once it is sown (wait til after mid December) in a vented covered container with drainage holes...... set it out in sun wind rain snow ice what have you and that's about all you have to do. Except transplant into the ground in spring.

I was thrilled how well it worked with thyme, lavender, and sage as well.

it's always a good time for Thyme. Or pie.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will make some little trays for them as soon as the snow melts. We got 15" last night and it's still going strong. I'm glad it's snow so much though because the temps are supposed to get down to single digits the next couple of days and it will be good insulation for the gardens.

Outdoor sowing (greenhouse) worked for me too. I used a lean potting soil with good success.