The optimal garden soil
Commonly, thyme thrives wherever other herbs give up due to lack of nutrients. The plant loves poor, well-drained soils with a neutral to basic pH between seven and eight. Ergo, you should not necessarily put your thyme plants in humus-rich soil, but mix them with a good amount of sand or gravel. Like other Mediterranean plants, thyme is wonderfully suitable for planting an easy-care gravel bed - in one you have little work to do with removing weeds.
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- Thyme - the sunnier the location, the better
- Wintering thyme is not difficult
Prepare garden soil for thyme
If you have a soil that is not very suitable for thyme in your garden, you can use it before a planting prepare accordingly. You can proceed as follows:
- Mark out the area where you want to plant thyme (and perhaps other Mediterranean herbs).
- Now lift with a spade the earth out, at least 8 inches deep.
- Keep in mind that thyme develops very deep taproots - the deeper the hole, the better.
- Now mix this earth in a ratio of 1: 1 with sand or gravel.
- Add to the mixture yet Expanded clay(€ 16.36 at Amazon *) if the original earth is too heavy and therefore not very permeable for water.
- Fill the planting area with the substrate mixture and loosen it well with a rake.
If the pH value of your soil - you can easily check this with standard test strips - is not yet in the optimal range, add a little more lime.
The ideal substrate for potted thyme
Even Potted thyme needs loose and sandy earth, you also need to ensure that the water drains well. Waterlogging should be prevented in any case, as this leads to root rot and thus to the death of the plant. You can achieve good drainage by filling the pot with small pebbles or expanded clay as the bottom layer. In addition, the pot - if possible made of clay or ceramic - should have a drainage hole in the bottom and stand on a saucer. Repot the thyme in fresh substrate once a year.
Tips & Tricks
Fertilize your thyme once a year with lime. However, if possible, do not use any fertilizer with a high nitrogen content, as this leads to the plant gelling - nitrogen above all strongly stimulates growth.
