Thyme Lawn

We can not have a traditional grass lawn here.In a Desert Landscape. I have heard of Thyme lawns. Patches of creeping thyme planted with stone across a patch of land. You cant walk on it. I would like to attempt do this. Does any one have any experience with this? I would love some advice. On the High Country Gardens website they have creeping thyme with purple and "pink chintz" flowers.They sell only plants at a hefty price.if anyone knows of a seed source for something besides the common wooly thyme or creeping thyme.Something more unusual . I would be more than grateful.Hope I hear from you. Thanks Michele

Michelle,
There is such a thing as "Mother of Thyme"
(Thymus S.Coccineum) which is also called walk on me plants,
It is very hard to find I know,but I found it this year in my Burgess catalog.They are 6 for $3.00 not real cheap but not as high as I have seen them.They grow well in shady spots or hard to plant areas,reaching only 3" tall.Creates
a decorative ground cover effect.Has small evergreen leaves
and a lot of crimson flowers.Blooms in June and July.
They do Not have a toll free number but here's the order by phone or charge it number 309-663-9551 and the address is
Burgess Seed and Plant Co.
905 Four Seasons Rd.
Bloomington,IL 61701
Hope this helps! Daisylou:)
BTW,#N5103 is the thyme order no.if you decide to go by phone.

Michele: an unrelated question to thyme. I brought a Sacred Lily home with me from Joshua Tree and it naturally died back with the extreme cold we've had. Will it come back? or have I lost it forever?

Daisy Lou - have been looking for a groundcover for a small area under several trees. Think I'll give the Mother of Thyme a try. This is what I love about this forum - great info from experience.
Blessings,
Grits

There is a website called Swallowtail Garden Seeds and she sells the Mother of Thyme seeds, about 2000 for $1.50. She has very nice items and she is a very nice person, wonderful to do business with. Here is the link:

http://www.swallowtailgardenseeds.com/index.html

I hope this will help. Good Luck.

Last September I ordered 240 thyme plants to plant between my crazy paving stones. I ordered 2 flats of plugs from Richters Herbs. They had to grow them specially for me and delivered them withing 1 month, so I was able to plant them before the freeze up (which has not happened this year). All 240 are looking good.

Richters Herbs has a web site, and they ship all over the world. Email: Orderdesk@Richters.com
WEB: www.Richters.com

They have the most amazing catalogue.

Grits, Yes , The Sacred Datura, I beleve? If so. The plant could still be alive in your zone. If it isnt send me a SASE and I will send you some seed. I have a front yard full. And lot gathered too! Very tough plant. Easy to grow. Those round seed pods look like giant spikey balls. Put on a pair of canvas gloves and crush(pod has to be very dryed) and out comes lots of seeds.I am not sure if it is annual or perrenial. I think is just will reseed if let go. Go to http://www.plantsofthesouthwest.com and look under wildflowers in the S section and look at the picture of the flower if you identfy it as this. I have answered your question.

Thanks, Michele! I hope it comes back. It grew from just a little thing to about 36" in diameter. I was afraid I was going to get arrested at the airport, lol.

Will let you know if it doesn't come back and get some seed.

Thanks again,
Grits

Gardendragon you really did do this in a big way. And thankyou. Did you do this in full sun or shade or both? What kind of thyme did you get?All the same or different?
To all that responded to me .Thankyou . I will use your info.
Grits, I dont think the cactus police(as we call them here) Would arrest you for that plant. I love it. Some people think of it as a weed here.(also called Jimson Weed.) If you dug it up, it gets a huge root. I dug one up and it was 4 inches around and 3 feet long. That is why I think it might still be alive. Just cut it off all dead parts and mulch. Like any other perrenial.That plant is very poisonous so keep animals and pets away. And wash your hands after touching it. Michele

[ Removed by member request. - Admin ]

I don't know if you're still interested in the thyme lawn or not, but I've seen them advertised in the HighCountry Gardens catalog. The website is: www.highcountrygardens.com
and their toll free # is: 1-800-925-9387
They have a "quick search" that you can put in "Creeping Thyme" and it brings up several varities. I am almost certain that they sell it as a ground cover as well, in larger quantities.

I have tried several types of creeping thyme for some areas in my yard....have had better luck with a thyme called "Annie" and the "Mother of Thyme". I have, however, had several spots of the M-O-T die on me (too much water?).

There is an herbal greenhouse here that I use.....if you want, I can get their name and number (can't think of it off the top of my head) and can email it to you...they do ship, as they're basically a wholesale to the stores nursery.

Hope this helps some.

Karma, What is Ajuga? It sounds like it is from the jungle or something. Sounds great. Is it an attractive plant? I can look it up on a website . And where did you get it? Thankyou. How is the weather in Washington?
Mom 24 Cats. Your online name sounds like an indian name!
I have heard of both of those varieties. I would love the address to the wholesale nursery. How is the weather in Moorestown , New Jersey?Thankyou for your input.I appreciate it.

Michele -- I spoke with Sandy today (owner of Weslyn Herb Farms), and she gave me their website address and said you can order the creeping thyme through that:
http://www.weslynfarm.com

She said you can email any questions you have through the email address on the website.

I looked in my HighCountry Gardens catalog and they do sell the creeping thyme for lawns there as well. You might want to just do a price comparison and see who's offering the best deal.

Weather here? Well, today I had my a/c on in my car, but I was also in a T-shirt (don't "do" winter coats unless it gets below 30!).......but of course, I'm not "normal" either! Think it was from spending all that time in CA and the hot south! Tomorrow (and Thurs, my b'day!!) it's back to winter rain both days! Yuck! I'm READY FOR SPRING!!!!

Good luck in finding sommething nice to wiggle your toesies in for your new "lawn"! :-)

The thyme I ordered was 120 plants of 'lemon thyme' and 120 plants of 'wild thyme'. The lemon thyme is planted on the eastern side of the garden and the wild thyme planted on the western & northern side of the garden.

These were tiny plants, 'plugs' they called them but seem to be doing ok.

I think I will order some wooly thyme next spring to fill in then will have 3 differnet scents.

When we redid the garden a couple of years ago it looked all too new and some places had ackward ending places. I planted thyme all different types.Iit filled in nicely along the walks giving the garden that nice comfy lived in look with wooly thyme and mother of thyme....the mother of thyme takes off like a rocket and so does the wooly thyme. I have others thyme in different places. The wooly one is very low to the ground and the mother one is about 3-4" high. I love them all..

Thankyou for all the response, I have several trades, and found some good sources. I have found out one thing. Creeping Thyme is not that easy to find. Especialy seed. Mother of Thyme, Pinapple Thyme, Wooly Thyme, there all kinds you could never dream existed. Thanks Michele

Michele -- I just checked out the list at Weslyn Farms, and the name of the thyme I'd tried that didn't work out well as a ground cover was the "Annie Hall". But then, I planted it in shade.....didn't realize it needed full sun.
mom24cats

Michele,

Have you considered crown vetch (coronilla varia) as your ground cover? We have some in a patch of the lawn here on our farm. I have no idea how it got started - I think my husband's grandmother planted it years ago because she liked the flowers. We keep it mowed down to prevent spreading, which it does very well. The flowers are dainty and pink and last all season. It takes all sorts of abuse and keeps on going! It dies back in the winter here but would remain evergreen for you. I'm not sure how your heat would affect the flowering of crown vetch, maybe your extension office could tell you.

Alison , I will check it out. I have heard of crown vetch, pretty pink flowers. Do you know if it is invasive? Thankyou for passing that along.

I have seen some warnings about its invasiveness but it doesn't seem to be invasive here. Our patch is right next to Grandpa's garden area and it hasn't spread into there at all. Our soil is sandy. I think in dry conditions like yours you wouldn't have problems.

Help! I really need to find Reiter's Thyme seeds or see picture of mother of thyme lawn. I've got lot's of sun and some shade.

Here is a photo of part of my thyme lawn. Most of it in this photo is Lemon Thyme, and some Moss Thyme. I also have Mother-of-Thyme, but not a good photo of it as a lawn.

I will be more than happy to send you some thyme if you want to start a lawn. I have about 10 different varieties, and they are so easy to root new pieces. I started with one plant of each variety, and at the end of summer, I had 50 new plants to set out for my lawn. E-mail me if you are interested.

Creeping red thyme is a very pretty little plant. My Mother of thyme is a bushy plant and wouldn't look well in a lawn.