Plant Encyclopedia

Description:

A wonderful creeping perennial, grown for its culinary properties; fragrant foliage adds a lovely aroma to patio containers, garden beds and borders; delicious flavor, perfect for cooking, adding to marinades and salads or dried for seasonings

Edible Qualities

Caraway Thyme is a perennial herb that is commonly grown for its edible qualities, although it does have ornamental merits as well. The tiny fragrant round chartreuse leaves with hints of yellow can be harvested at any time in the season. The leaves have a savory taste and a pleasant fragrance.

The leaves are most often used in the following ways:

• Eating When Cooked/Prepared
• Cooking
• Drying
• Seasoning

Features & Attributes

Caraway Thyme's attractive tiny fragrant round leaves remain chartreuse in color with hints of yellow throughout the year on a plant with a spreading habit of growth.

This is a dense herbaceous evergreen perennial herb with a spreading, ground-hugging habit of growth. It brings an extremely fine and delicate texture to the garden composition and should be used to full effect. This plant will require occasional maintenance and upkeep, and can be pruned at anytime. Deer don't particularly care for this plant and will usually leave it alone in favor of tastier treats. Gardeners should be aware of the following characteristic(s) that may warrant special consideration;

• Spreading

Aside from its primary use as an edible, Caraway Thyme is sutiable for the following landscape applications;

• Rock/Alpine Gardens
• Border Edging
• General Garden Use
• Groundcover
• Naturalizing And Woodland Gardens
• Herb Gardens
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Caraway Thyme will grow to be only 6 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 12 inches. When grown in masses or used as a bedding plant, individual plants should be spaced approximately 12 inches apart. Its foliage tends to remain low and dense right to the ground. It grows at a fast rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 10 years. As an evegreen perennial, this plant will typically keep its form and foliage year-round.

This plant is quite ornamental as well as edible, and is as much at home in a landscape or flower garden as it is in a designated herb garden. It should only be grown in full sunlight. It prefers dry to average moisture levels with very well-drained soil, and will often die in standing water. It is considered to be drought-tolerant, and thus makes an ideal choice for a low-water garden or xeriscape application. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is highly tolerant of urban pollution and will even thrive in inner city environments. Consider covering it with a thick layer of mulch in winter to protect it in exposed locations or colder microclimates. This species is not originally from North America. It can be propagated by division.

Caraway Thyme is a good choice for the edible garden, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor pots and containers. Because of its spreading habit of growth, it is ideally suited for use as a 'spiller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the edges where it can spill gracefully over the pot. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.