Hi folks,
I added a stone path to my yard and garden (about 4' x 25') last year and began to fill between the stones. I planted a few Whooly Thyme and Highland Cream Thyme thinking that it would release fragrance with each step on the path. Can anyone offer suggestions regarding additional ground cover for planting this year that would do well with the thyme?
Between the stones of my walking path
Hi Kathleen,
If you can find it, you can try Corsican mint. It's very low growing and supposedly spreads well. Not to mention that it smells great when you step on it! I have a path in full sun and I'm trying to get something to grow between the stones, but so far I've had little or no luck with "Stepables" or thyme. I'm thinking that the spot is just too dry....
Good luck, I'll be interested to know what works for you.
Tamberlin
I haven't looked for it but maybe there's a ground hugging basil. I read about Sweet Woodruff recently but they did use that bad word - invasive!
haven't found any basils that aren't tender. there's an article at Mountain Valley about using creeping oregano or marjoram for a lawn (?) that you might want to take a look at.
http://www.mountainvalleygrowers.com/oreganolawn.htm
gram
I tried wooly thyme between stepping stones in both sun and part shade. The fragrance is nice, but my wife complained that it grew too high (even if I mowed it) and that the bees buzzing around the blossoms bothered her when she wore skirts. It does turn brown in winter, but that doesn't bother me.
Some tests with lemon thyme and mother-of-thyme (from seed) seem to grow lower to the ground and at least last year did not have as many blossoms, so I am going to replace the wooly thyme this year. There are a few hybrid miniatures, but the cost of that would be too great for a large area. I did try Pearwort (sagina subulata) a few years ago, but that didn't survive a bad winter. Wayside touts Mazus reptans as a "splendid ground cover" for sun or part shade that "withstands heavy foot traffic", but again the cost is fairly high and I feared it might spread into the lawn.
OOPS--see correction below
This message was edited Feb 13, 2007 3:12 PM
it's hard to get going, but how about moss?
What a nice idea...sorry I am of no help. I am still pretty new at this stuff. You have just given me some ideas though :)
Hey thx all! DonShirer, thx for the info on the Woolly Thyme. I didn't think about the blossoms and the bees. The last thing I want to deal with on the walking path is bees. I think I'll leave the Woolly Thyme this summer, but not add any additional and see how it does. I'm definately going to look into the Oragano and Mazus. Perhaps one of those will do the trick!
my woolly thyme is very flat. many sites say it doesn't flower. mine does flower some, but not as much as the other thymes. Don, I'm surprised that yours had so many blossoms. maybe because you mow it? mine is much bigger than this now, but it's the best pic I have.
Gram:
Both the thyme near the walk (that I mowed) and the thyme I had in the strip between the walk and the street (unmowed) had lots of purplish red blossoms. The mother-of-thyme had fewer and redder blooms.
I don't have a closeup picture. I'll have to remember to take one next spring.
Thx for the pic Gram. It's nice to know what I can expect. I planted mine last spring and it barely spread by the end of the season. How long should I expect before the Woolly Thyme establishes and spreads?
I think that's the 2nd year on that plant. here's a closeup of the blooms a year later. so the 3rd year, that one little woolly thyme is about 2.5' across. it didn't really have anything to get in it's way.
Don, yours doesn't sound like woolly thyme to me. the blooms are lavender. I have 10 varieties of creeping thyme, and the woolly is pretty distinctive.
here's the best pic I could find of the whole plant - it's on the lower left. I like to underplant roses with thyme.
grampapa,
That is the nicest specimen of wooly thyme I ever seen. The only other time I have seen it grown that successfully was when it was planted in nearly 100% sand. What is your secret for preventing rot? kt
My message of a few days ago was in error. Gram kindly pointed out that what I was given as wooly thyme seed wasn't. A trip to the library and a perusal of Dave's plant files convinced me that what I probably have was a version of Thymus serpyllum (a sort of catchall name for T. praecox subsp. articus or other low-growing thymes). Evidently wooly thyme does not have much of a scent and is hard (or impossible?) to find as seed. It is available in plants or plugs, and evidently is easy to propagate from cuttings, and is one of the best varieties for walkways. Sorry for the mistake, and thanks to you, Jan, for the information.
Some of the more hardy alpines may do well. Maybe some nice mosses? When it warms up, take a trip to your local nursery and look for a series of plants that have a footprint shaped label. There were many good high traffic plants sold by that company. I wish I could remember their name, but it escapes me. If you go for oregano, make sure you don't let it bloom as black wasps are attracted to oregano flowers and can be quite intimidating.
This message was edited Feb 13, 2007 4:51 PM
kt, my secret is to stick the plant in a hole in the ground and let it grow. it's heavy clay. doesn't get watered much. no fertilizer, which is probably good.
Don, you're more than welcome for whatever info I could share, but I sure didn't expect to send you off on a research expedition. you take your thyme seriously LOL