Gardening Tips no. 5: Magic carpet

Recycled containers add an individual touch to your displays. The only limit to what you can use is your imagination.

Time to plant: spring

Indulge in a scented carpet of colourful leaves with this display of different types of thyme. Most garden centres will have a reasonable selection of varieties on offer, but to get the widest choice, buy your plants from a specialist herb nursery. This display uses no less than six varieties of thyme: broad‘leaved (ThyrrIus pulegioides), lemon-scented (T. x citriodorus), golden (T. pulegioides 'Aureus'), variegated (I citriodorus 'Golden Queen'), silvery (I vulgaris ’Silver Posie'), and common thyme (T. vulgaris). All these herbs enjoy a sunny spot and well~drained compost use a loam-based John Innes compost with extra grit added to improve the drainage. As an evergreen herb, thyme can be picked for the kitchen at any time of year, and any leaves you can't use straight away can be dried for use later on. They don’t need much maintenance either. Just give the plants a quick trim if they start to become unruly.

_{TIP Make sure your container drains freely by filling the base with gravel or broken-up chunks from polystyrene trays before adding compost.}

references: BBC 2011 gardeners book
image: https://www.seiontnurseries.com/s/cc_images/cache_2446072373.jpg

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