Thyme is an evergreen bush that grows all year. We love growing thyme in our garden both to use in cooking and as a beautiful landscape plant. We only grow our thyme plants outside because they need a lot of air flow to keep them from molding. If you wanted to grow them inside you could get a plant fan to create wind for the plants and help prevent mold.

Sun – Thyme needs full sun to grow and do not do well in the shade.

Soil – They like to grow in well draining soil. Sitting in wet, water soil can cause a lot of problems from thyme plants. Mixing some sand and perlite into your peat soil and potting soil well help to insure the soil drains well and doesn’t get the roots to wet.

Spacing – Thyme plants need to be spaced 12in/30cm to 24in/60cm apart in order for their roots to spread out.

Water – If you thyme is growing outside you most likely will never need to water it unless there is no rain in a heatwave for more than a week and half to 2 weeks. You should water your thyme plant every two week or whenever the soil is completely dry. (That’s for both indoor and outdoor thyme plant.)

Food – Outdoor thyme plants need to be fertilized once a year in the spring. Indoor thyme plants need to be fertilized once a month to once every two months depending on the size of pot you have them in.

Annual or Perennial – Thyme plants are Perennial plants that can live up to 5 or 6 years.

Climate/Hardiness – They are very cold hardy and heat hardy plants that can grow even in the snow. Their deep roots provide them warm so they can green all year round.

Harvest – When thyme is 5in/12cm in diameter you can start to harvest the tips of the plant as needed. Once the plant starts to flower you will want to wait until after it flowers to harvest the tips.

Transplant – Once thyme in settle in one spot it will be pretty hard to transplant as the roots can go deep. Thyme does well with transplanting when it is young and can easily propagated.