Jan–MarApr–JunJul–SepOct–Dec
Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
← Explore Plants
Plant · P-162
Creeping Thyme
Thymus serpyllum
Creeping Thyme forms a dense, low mat that tolerates being walked on and can even be grown as a short fragrant lawn, and from June to September it becomes one of the strongest bee and butterfly plants around, hosting two blue butterfly species and drawing honey bees hard. Its leaves are a genuine, if milder, culinary thyme - good raw in salads, as a flavouring, or as tea - and deer and rabbits both tend to leave it alone. It needs sharp drainage to survive: excellent in gravel, paver joints or on a dry slope, but prone to root rot wherever the ground stays moist, and hot humid summers push it close to its heat limit even where drainage is right.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 4–8
- Soil
- Sand · Loam
- Moisture
- Dry · Well-Drained · Moderate
Vertical layer
Groundcover- Soil pH
- 6–7.8
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 2–3 in
- Mature spread
- 3–12 in
- Plant spacing
- 12–36 in
- Root type
- Stolon
- Spread pattern
- Root
Keep exploring
Similar plants
Discover more plants with shared forest layers or growing conditions.
Bambara Groundnut
Vigna subterranea
Bambara groundnut is the drought crop of this group, producing a food-grade seed on ground too poor and too dry for peanut or soybean - it is…
Groundcover · USDA 8–11
Barren Strawberry
Waldsteinia fragarioides
Barren Strawberry is a low woodland groundcover with strawberry-like leaves and yellow spring flowers, but despite the name and the leaf…
Groundcover · USDA 4–7
Beach Strawberry
Fragaria chiloensis
Beach strawberry is a low, evergreen, mat-forming strawberry native to Pacific coast dunes and bluffs from Alaska south through California to…
Groundcover · USDA 4–10
Bilberry
Vaccinium myrtillus
Bilberry is a low, suckering shrub of acid heaths and cool mountain woodland, spreading by rhizome into a knee-high mat. Its small dark…
Groundcover · USDA 3–7
Black Medick
Medicago lupulina
Black Medick is a low, sprawling nitrogen-fixing clover relative that forms a mowable mat through fall, winter and spring before dying back…
Groundcover · USDA 3–9
Carpet Bugle
Ajuga reptans
Carpet Bugle forms a fast, dense, rooting mat that thrives in dry shade - the hardest niche on most properties to fill, since dry ground…
Groundcover · USDA 3–10
The deeper layer
Plan what comes next.
- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
- Locked research reference
- Locked research reference
- Locked research reference