Creeping Thyme & Marigold Experiments

My husband's marigold planter and a bit of my potted blueberry bush.

I just transplanted a creeping thyme plant from my window box to the herb bed to the right of my husband's fancy echinacea (coneflower) bed. Rabbits love eating those echinacea plants down to the ground. At least they did last year as they ate them all down to the ground.

He buys anti rabbit sprays but they're expensive and he goes through a lot of it. So, hoping to save money and resources, I looked up plants that rabbits don't like and thyme was one of them. I knew that thyme in the windowbox would be happier in the ground so it seemed like a good thing to try.

After transplanting the thyme I cut off the excess growth (it was grossly overgrown for the size of the little pot) and spread it around the echinacea area. I also spread some around the African Daisy that miraculously made it through the winter (I planted that between the big tomato pots and it was doing fine last time I checked on it but today I noticed that something ate a good portion of the leaves and it (or something else) dug a hole right next to it. I filled the hole in too. And I tucked the cut ends of the thyme into the soil, in hopes that it might root and grow.

That thyme plant made it through two winters in its little three inch pot. I bought it a couple years ago but wasn't able to plant it right away then had all kinds of health challenges and higher priorities so I just left it (and a bunch of others, which are all still there) in the window box. In the heat of summer they were looking bad so I quickly just buried their pots in the window box' soil. I think there's a lavender, a German thyme and an oregano still there. I think the sage, blue sage and another plant didn't make it. I try to only buy what I can plant but unexpected health changes take me by surprise and change my plans.

Last fall I harvested a bunch of thyme and I think it was a mix of the creeping thyme I transplanted today and German thyme. I've been using it for cooking throughout the winter, spring and even had a enough left to use in the soup I made on Monday. I love cooking with home-grown herbs. Do you grow herbs? I'd love to hear about it!

Back to today: I also pulled a bunch of weeds (we have this insidious vine that took over last summer and has spread everywhere. I'm trying to get them while they're smaller and easier because by the time I noticed them last summer they were far more powerful than me. I literally couldn't pull them out, even after a rain.. I don't know what they are so I think of them as Hercules weeds). Then I deadheaded the marigolds my husband bought a few weeks ago and spread the spent flowers where someone's dog was digging in front of our fruit cocktail/ peach tree (I read that dogs don't like the scent of marigolds and I hope this will halt future digging).

I noticed a trumpet vine climbing up behind the siding so I pulled that out and dug out the root and planted that under one of the holly trees. I'd rather have that than the Hercules weed, although some people do consider trumpet vine to be a weed. The area under the hollies is just a breeding zone for weeds so I'm hoping that moving things like vinca, the trumpet vine, and mint will help keep even less desirable things (like poison ivy and those Hercules weeds) at bay.

Totally off topic, but yesterday I harvested enough lettuce and Swiss chard to make a lunch salad (with store bought tomatoes and hummus) and it was delicious. Just pick, rinse, plate and eat. I should have taken a picture of the salad as it was pretty. Hopefully next time.

May God bless you and all you do!

PS I've decided to just do my journaling and not worry about pictures. It seems that when I wait I forget to blog at all. So better to just sit down and write. But I will take and share pictures when I can. The picture I shared with today's post was taken shortly after my husband bought and planted the marigolds, not today. I was glad that it uploaded though. Better to have an older picture than none at all.