I do not know, but I don’t feel you can officially describe yourself an herb gardener unless you have got some thyme growing somewhere.  There are lots of uses for this important herb.  It can’t hurt that thyme has more than 100 varieties, each of which has its own special taste and smell.

All of the varieties of thyme have similar attributes such as leaves shaped like ovals and a twig like, woody stem.  In early summer or late spring, based on your climate, your herb will blossom with little pink, lavender or white colored blooms.

It’s helpful to be familiar with the following 3 types of thyme:

• Common Thyme: When you purchase thyme at the grocery, this is the type that you’ll generally be getting.  This variety is taller than the others and is awesome to cook with because of the strong smell and taste.  You can look at the leaves of this vaiety of thyme to decide which of the following three varieties it is.  You will find that the French kind has narrow leaves as opposed to the German which has broad leaves, and then there is the English variety which has variegated leaves.

• Lemon Thyme: You will have a hard thyme guessing what lemon thyme smells like.  If you cannot figure that one out you might want to choose another hobby.  You can’t miss the scent of lemon that emanates from lemon thyme.  Some kinds of lemon thyme even have little yellow blossoms.

• Wild Thyme: Some people wrongly think that all types of thyme are identical, but you won’t often find wild thyme being used in cooking.  It’s rather pretty and sculptural, and folks often use it as a ground cover.

Cooking with thyme is as easy as snipping off a few leaves and tossing them to your recipe.  Thyme does well with pruning and there’s no other way to prune your thyme than to cut some leaves for a fantastic meal.  This plant is also found in health and beauty products that you can make at home.  Thyme can be used in all kinds of products from soaps and shampoos to potpourri or you can simply throw some in your bath.

According to some folks, thyme has a lot of healing uses too, including improving digestion, soothing a cough, easing asthmatic breathing, aiding with headaches, encouraging sleep and reducing flatulence.  It seems like this plant does everything but dust the furniture.

It is one of the best herbs to grow.  This herb loves full-sun and well-drained, rich soil and can be raised inside too.  Because it takes a long time to germinate your herb (a long thyme), I would suggest that you head on down to your local discount store and buy a few herbs for your herb garden.  This herb has a pretty sculptural quality and looks great in an outdoor rock garden, on a driveway or along a stone wall.

If you do not want to mess with taking your thyme inside for the cold months, you can dry it by cutting off each branch at the stem and hanging it upside down.

It is generally a sensible idea to store the seeds from your thyme plant.  Believe it or not, your herbs can still be used in germination 3 years later.

Good luck with your herb gardening. Be sure to let me know how your herb garden grows.

Here is more information on Herb Garden Plants. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Herb Gardens.