Creeping thyme is a drought-tolerant alternative to traditional lawns
September 9, 2024
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Creeping thyme is a drought-tolerant alternative to traditional lawns
Last updated: October 5, 2024
It can be unnerving to see your grass dry up and die within a few weeks in an extreme weather year. This is what happened in 2020 to homeowners after a summer of hot, dry weather, especially to those people who do not irrigate their lawns. Everywhere I looked, grasses looked thirsty, and sometimes fried.
One alternative to thirsty turf grasses is a wonderful plant called creeping thyme often used in drought-tolerant landscapes, or xeriscaping. It offers homeowners benefits such as no mowing, drought tolerance, spring flowers, and a durable texture that can handle moderate foot traffic. Creeping thyme maintains a height of about 1- 2 cm and creeps horizontally rather than vertically.
Before you convert your lawn to thyme though, you should assess whether your site matches its growing requirements. Does your yard have full sun exposure? Creeping thyme needs full sun and will die off in the shade. Is your soil clay? If so, you need to prepare it by mixing in sand and possibly triple mix, as the soil must be free-draining.
The above photo shows half of the backyard thyme lawn. The homeowner who created these hasn’t mowed any lawns for decades!
I see a few homes with large thyme lawns in my North York neighbourhood. Its interesting that I can deduce which neighbours are friends since they share bamboo clumps and thyme lawns! One of the home owners told me that she started with one flat of creeping thyme, and through propagating of clumps every year, covered her entire front and back yards with creeping thyme. When I walk by her house in June, the blooming thyme is stunning.
Thyme lawns need biweekly maintenance, especially weeding of seedlings in the spring. If the root system of weed grasses takes hold under the thyme, it wrecks the appearance of the thyme. The longer you let the weeds grow, the more difficult it is to recover from it, just like a regular turf. Every June and July, I spend several hours weeding the front and back thyme lawns for a customer. Also, once a season, the edges of the lawn should be trimmed to give the borders a clean look.
One of my customers, David, who converted portions of his front and back yards to thyme lawns decades ago (picture at left) was kind enough to share these instructions with me:
A close up of the thyme lawn shows small, pretty, late spring flowers. I can attest to how comfortable the lawn feels underfoot because I find it therapeutic to go barefoot when I’m weeding the thyme lawn.
How To Create a Thyme Lawn
1. You may purchase plugs from a specialty nursery such as Richters Herbs and calculate the quantity based on a 12-inch spacing between plugs. It takes 6-8 weeks from order for them to be ready for pickup or delivery.
2. Prepare the soil by shaking the turfs to retain the topsoil, then add builder’s sand as it is important to have good drainage. It may be necessary to dig into the soil down a few inches if it is heavy clay, to get good drainage. You may also need to improve the soil by adding some triple mix.
3. The plugs can be planted 12 inches apart, as they spread quickly. If you plant in June, they should be well advanced by the following spring.
4. After planting the plugs, water them every day on a timer at about 6:00 a.m. This can be done with a stutter sprinkler that covers 180 degrees in a half-circle.
5. Another option is to buy mature plants, but that is more expensive.
6. Transplants also work well, and if you have patience and take some transplants every year to move to uncolonized parts of your yard, you can cover a large space with thyme over the years.
*** Happy Planting and share your experience with us!
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KJ Gardening offers customers a range of garden maintenance and plant health care services.