It's about Thyme...

Don't you just think Thyme is fascinating?! All those tiny leaves and then, at the right time of year, all those tiny flowers, all tightly woven together in a plush carpet! It's amazing!

My real fascination with Thyme began when I went to the National Trust property Felbrigg Hall for a BBC Radio Norfolk outside broadcast. I was supposed to be producing, but there was this big patch of Thyme right by where we were based for a part of the programme and I couldn't take my eyes off it. Unsurprisingly it was smothered with bees (helped by the fact that it was only a stone's throw from the Hall's beehive) and seemed almost alive. I was determined I'd recreate such a Thyme carpet at home.

But, sometimes it's the things you really REALLY want that prove the hardest to attain! I kept buying lots of lovely Thymes, but somehow I never got their conditions right and - much to my disappointment - they failed to thrive. Looking back I think it was the drainage element I was missing. But somewhere along the line I obviously figured out the error of my ways and it seemed that all of a sudden I was having success with my Thyme. Two of the first I managed to grow to any kind of maturity were this large, airy pale pink one which I grow in a pot and Thymus serpyllum 'Russetings', which is in my heart-shaped bed in the front garden. 

Russetings is probably one of the few Thymes whose name I still know! I have loads on my database, but I don't know which plant they belong to. I'm hoping if I go rummage in the garden I might be able to find some labels helpfully still in the ground near their plants! Anyway, those two were the first Thymes which settled in and didn't die. I was onto something! So, learning from my many mistakes and few successes, I set about converting the verge outside my garden into a Thyme paradise. I dug it over, added some compost, but mainly loads of grit. And voila! I popped in a load of tiny little Thymes and a year on they are ecstatic! I lost a couple because people walking by pushed the wheelie bin on top of them (which isn't going to help any plant's health!) but the rest are looking wonderful! And they're as popular with the bees as the original plants which inspired me at Felbrigg! 

If you look closely, I make that at least five bees..!