Thyme

This low-growing perennial, grows wild in central Europe anywhere that is warm, even the poorest fields and roadsides. It has tiny aromatic leaves are born on erect stems and small flowers, ranging from palest pink to deep rose. It's an ideal rock garden or paving plant.

Cultivation

Thyme requires a hot, sunny location and is most aromatic when grown in well-drained soils, low in nutrients. Given its wild location, it will thrive in stony soil and requires little watering once established. While it can be grown from seed, new plants can most easily be propagated by layering from an established clump or by dividing the plants and replanting rooted sections in autumn.

Parts Used

Dried flowering plant or fresh leaves in an infusion to apply to wounds.

Uses

This herb, famous as far back as records have been kept, adds its flavour to all red meat dishes, soups, sauces and vegetable dishes and is a favourite ingredient in poultry stuffing.

It also has many traditional medicinal uses, mainly in the treatment of coughs and colds and also as an antiseptic. The dried herb or extracted oil was often used to make skin tonics and the oil is reputed to repel head lice as well as being a good treatment for athlete's foot – so it's a head to toe treatment! To make a tea, use two teaspoons of dried herb per cup of boiling water and steep for ten minutes. Add a teaspoon of sage to the tea if you have a nagging cough.

Thyme varieties photograph by sillydog from flickr under a creative commons attribution licence.