![]() ![]() ![]() But, different folks have different amounts of ground to cover and different expectations’ of what a ground cover is. Most folks want to use the Ground Cover Thymes to cover the ground. It is the Ground Cover Thymes that tend to confuse. There aren’t too many and their names are fairly descriptive, like Lemon Thyme and Orange Balsam Thyme. A blessing because there are so many different kinds and a curse because there are so many different kinds. It is being threatened by the fast growing Pink Lemonade Thyme which will probably take over both the Elfin Thyme and the Woolly Thyme in a year or so. ![]() If you look closely you can see a small patch of a slightly bluer thyme in between the two flowering ones. In the back, Pink Heretus Thyme is also in full bloom. The taller flowering Caraway Thyme is in the foreground to the right of the Woolly Thyme. It flows into the silvery, non-flowering Woolly Thyme near the boundary board which separates this garden from the lawn. Pink Lemonade Thyme is the bright green thyme that has the shadow of the tree on it. These five ground cover thymes of varying colors, textures and heights are growing in a pleasing mosaic. Once established, ground cover thymes also help to keep weed seeds from sprouting. I also expect that the thyme will be mature enough by then that I can stop watering… I already have stopped using chemicals now that the grass has been replaced.Ground Cover Thymes are not only beautiful and soft to walk on, they are also the perfect way to keep the ground cool and conserve moisture. I am already looking forward to June of 2021 when the whole yard should flower together and when I expect there to be only minimal gaps between all of the plants. I placed a picture of these flowering plants in one of the Manhasset Facebook sites and had 86 likes and 12 comments within 24-hours. More good news came in June when the thyme that I had planted last year developed thousands of mini-flowers with a stunningly bright purple reddish color. The other advantage of this method is that the cardboard and mulch do a great job of controlling the weeds well after the planting… I have only needed to pull out isolated weeds here and there. This time I did not need to dig up all of the grass as I just punched through the cardboard every 14” with 2” diameter holes for the new plants. This time I was smarter and covered the grass with cardboard (until I ran out and used newspaper) and 2” of mulch during the last week in February.īy the end of April, the grass lawn that I so hated was dead. I purchased about 400 plants and used 20 of them to fill in some gaps from the 2019 planting. the second time aroundīy the time the next spring came around, I was excited to plant the other half of my lawn. I was worried that they would lose their leaves over the winter so I was pleasantly surprised when the leaves stayed in place and turned an interesting, dark purplish color. I lost a couple of these new plants during a heat wave and I weeded often, but by the end of the year, they had grown quickly and filled in the gaps better than I expected. I was in good shape, but found it to be physically taxing. Using just a shovel, I proceeded to dig up my lawn and plant all of them about 15” apart over the course of two weeks or so. Luckily I found their mail order website,, where I purchased the plants for less than $2 each and bought about 300 of them. After visiting local garden centers, I found creeping thyme at Hicks that was supplied by a company called Jeepers Creepers. I liked its height (2”), the fact that it can tolerate moderate foot traffic, is drought resistant, spreads fast and chokes out weeks and attracts bees and butterflies. The first timeĪfter doing much on-line research, I chose to replace half of my front lawn with Red Creeping Thyme in the spring of 2019. In the end I decided to cancel both my lawn service and my landscaper and use this money to re-wild my front lawn. When I used this lawn service, I felt guilty about it and it still did not look that great. When I did not use a lawn service to put chemicals on it, it looked embarrassingly bad. Here he writes about the how and why of the process … Most importantly, he has always hated his turf grass lawn, and finally replaced it with a beautiful carpet of creeping thyme. ![]() His interests include reading and triathlon training. He grew up in this lawn and tree-loving community, where he now lives with his wife and two sons. Charles Maass is a Civil Engineer living in Manhasset on Long Island. ![]()
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