Tabor Thyme Plants

Tabor Thyme Plants

A Tabor thyme plant or two deserve a place in your herb collection for a number of reasons. It's a perennial, and evergreen, so it'll carry on giving you brilliant rich-green, glossy aromatic leaves and stems for many years. The flowers are worth a mention, too, being cute and dainty and a real magnet for pollinators, especially bees, which love the small, open, pale purple/pink flowers: a little like a miniature, low-growing and looser lavender plant. Browse all our UK grown herbs.

Great in your herb garden

Make sure you give thyme a sunny spot and really sharp drainage: it is a Mediterranean plant, native to rocky hillsides. A pot filled with 50:50 mix of compost and horticultural grit is ideal, or plant it in a rockery. There's no need to fertilise, as poor soil is preferable for thymes. Just keep picking the leaves to keep the plant compact, and give it a trim after flowering.

Thymes combine well with lavender, rosemary, oregano, and other thyme varieties with contrasting flower colours. A wide terracotta pot filled with prostrate rosemary and a couple of thymes makes a lovely combination for a table decoration.

You can harvest leaves and stems throughout the growing season, from around April to October. Chopped and combined with lemon zest and olive oil, the leaves make a great marinade for halloumi (before frying) or feta cheese. Or add sprigs to stews and roasts for that gorgeous Mediterranean aromatic scent. If you're feeling adventurous, a little thyme is also great in cakes, cookies and summer fools, where its bright yet earthy notes bring a wonderful contrast to sweetness.

Features

• Uses: stews, roasts, with cheese and in cakes and biscuits
• Taste: aromatic, earthy
• Harvest: April-October
• Storage: use fresh; the leaves can also be frozen and dried
• Height: 20cm
• Spacing: 30cm
• Life: perennial

Did you know?

The ancient Greeks regarded thyme as the bringer of courage; they bathed in it and burnt it to benefit from its bravery-bringing qualities. In the Middle Ages, knights were given bunches of thyme, possibly for the same reason, or possibly because Thyme has anti-bacterial properties, which is always handy.

Keep well watered to establish. Trim regularly to maintain shape. Trim all over after flowering.