Last updated on September 23rd, 2022 at 04:40 pm
As a gardener, you need to be wary about the type of plants you introduce into your garden. You may have invested countless hours into grooming your garden to align with your desires. But just the wrong plant choice can bring all your efforts crashing down.
While some plants can complement the growth of the other plants around, some others, like invasive plants, can kill their neighbors. And if you have Creeping Thyme in your garden, this exact issue might bother you.
So, will Creeping Thyme kill other plants? Creeping thyme doesn’t kill other plants. Unlike invasive plants that send their roots all over the place and compete with the other nearby plants, creeping thyme grows by spreading its stems along the ground surface, sprouting leaves and flowers. So the other plants around can grow through because it grows mostly laterally, with a height of just about four inches.
Will Creeping Thyme Choke out Other Plants?
No, Creeping Thyme will not choke out other plants. Creeping Thyme is a slow grower. This term means it takes a longer time to grow and become fully established when compared to the other ground covers. So it does not choke out-compete the other plants in its vicinity.
More so, it hardly grows beyond 4-6 inches high, so the other neighboring plants can grow higher and get sunlight, moisture, and other resources.
Additionally, creeping Thyme has aromatic and beautiful flowers ranging from purple to blue to pink and white depending on the cultivar, they are very attractive to bees and butterflies. The surrounding plants thus are also pollinated by these insects too.
Conditions For Creeping Thyme To Grow
So, if you’ve been wowed by the benefits as well as the fine attributes of this mint, you should consider adding it to your garden, and here’s how:
Soil
Creeping Thyme requires slightly neutral to alkaline soil to grow. It should be sandy or loamy soil that’s well-drained too.
It does not necessarily require nutritious soil to grow and can grow in poor soil as well. The soil should also be free from weeds.
Sunlight
Creeping Thyme requires moderate to full sunlight to grow effectively.
Water
It requires moderate amounts of water when growing up. That is why well-drained soil is required. However, when it becomes mature, it can effectively tolerate drought.
Planting
Creeping Thyme can be cultivated either by seeds, seedlings, or divisions from an already grown or mature plant.
When you want to plant using the seeds, you need to grow them in a container indoors first before transplanting them to the permanent site. You should do it during the final days of the frost.
“I would recommend this planting bag to grow indoors, Check out the latest price on Amazon.”
They should be grown where they will get enough sunlight to grow well. Creeping thyme should also be well watered but not excessively. It takes the seeds about two to three weeks to grow into seedlings.
Once they have sprouted, they can be taken out to the already prepared soil and planted. This transplanting should be during early summer or late spring.
They should be planted about eight to twelve inches apart, so they have enough space to grow into. If, however, you don’t want to use the seed method, you can get the seedlings from your local store and plant.
For the division method, you must first have an already established Creeping Thyme plant. You uproot the plant using a spade and then divide it, ensuring the divided parts have enough roots. Then you plant it in the prepared soil.
Care
You don’t need to worry yourself too much about maintaining Creeping Thyme because it requires little to no maintenance.
All you need to do is prune it when it overgrows to keep it as a low shrub. Pruning should be carried out during the summer period. You may also need to fertilize it if the soil it was grown in was poor, nutrition-wise.
Will Creeping Thyme Choke out Weeds?
Weeds can be annoying, I know. They grow where they are not wanted. They can survive harsh environmental conditions and usually reproduce very fast.
However, Creeping Thyme is a ground cover, it tends to grow and cover the area or soil where it is planted.
It “creeps” all over the place, as the name suggests. In addition, they grow and congest the area in which they are planted. Consequently, it deprives the underlying weeds of sunlight which is needed for photosynthesis.
When fully grown and established, creeping thyme inhibits and holds back the growth of weeds. It can act as a good weed shield or barrier, reducing the growth of weeds. It grows into thick mat-like foliage that suffocates and chokes the weeds growing underneath.
However, some tiny weeds can still grow through it. An example is Clover. So occasionally, it may be necessary to pull out the weeds that grow through it.
Also, during the early growing seedling phase, weeds can be a nuisance to the tender and young thyme, as they compete with the shrub for space, light, nutrients, and water.
Depending on the type or species, Creeping Thyme can take between 1 to 2 years to become fully established. So, it can be stressful at this stage to handpick the weeds, especially when the growing area is large.
Furthermore, it is important to note that it is not in all cases that Creeping Thyme competes effectively with weeds. You may need to add mulch to the garden from time to time, in addition to growing Creeping Thyme.
Will Creeping Thyme Choke out Grass?
Yes, creeping thyme can choke out grass. Grass, just like weeds, tends to grow almost anywhere, as far as there’s soil, nutrients, sunlight, and water.
So if you are looking for a means of putting an end to this nemesis, you should consider growing Creeping Thyme.
Creeping Thyme will choke out grasses. Even though it may take a while, the grasses will eventually give way. This is true especially during the drought period when the availability of water is reduced drastically.
Because Creeping Thyme can withstand extended periods of drought, they will outlast the grasses.
Conclusion
Creeping Thyme is a beautiful plant to grow in your garden. Because it can grow densely as a ground cover and function as a weed repellent, to blue because it overlies the weeds and keeps them from getting sunlight which is required for photosynthesis. As such, the weeds die off from lack of nutrition.
It also outcompetes grasses and dominates them when fully established. So if you have a weed or grass problem, you should give Creeping Thyme a try.
Don’t worry; your other garden plants will be safe because it doesn’t kill the other plants. On the contrary, it boosts the growth of the other plants because it serves as attractants to bees and other insect pollinators, which will also pollinate the other nearby plants.