Thyme
Thyme is a very enjoyable and ideal herb to grow indoors.
The advantage of growing your own is that fresh thyme is much more flavourful than dried thyme, but has a storage life of not much more than a week.
- French Thyme – Ideal for stews, soups, meat and fish dishes.
- Lemon Thyme – Ideal for chicken and fish dishes.
- Orange Thyme – Ideal for duck, dessert & carrot recipes.
Follow the links below for details, or read on for growing and cooking advice:
The Different Thyme Varieties
Lots of different varieties of thyme
If you want to know how to grow the plant indoors a key element will be which type you want to grow – as different types taste differently and you might want to grow at least 2 or 3 diferent types.
There are over 100 different varieties – some are great for decoration or attracting bees or caterpillars. But the most popular ones to grow are:
- French or common – the one used most often in cooking.
- Lemon
- Caraway
- Oregano-scented
- Orange
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How to grow thyme indoors
It tends to be best suited to well drained soil and full sun.
Which is why it’s ideal for growing either using soil or hydroponics on a balacony (if it’s sunny) or using a kitchen hydroponic or aquaponic kit with back up lighting.
If using soil
- Sow the seeds thinly into moist warm soil
- Cover slighly – will germinate 7 to 21 days
- Thin to 30 cm between plants
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Using Hydronics or Aquaponics
- It is ideal for hydroponics or aquaponics
- Will take about 5 to 7 weeks before harvesting
- You can speed this up by planting cuttings
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To get a thyme cutting
Cut at the point where the leaves attach. Then remove the lower leaves and then push the cut end into a container of moist soil mix. Keep the pot in a warm, shaded area and keep slightly damp. The video provides full details
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How to use different types
Taking them in turn.
French or Common
This is the one you are probably used to. The leaves have a strong aroma and are useful in stews, soups and with meat and fish dishes. Because it’s such a powerful herb is it great when combined with other herbs like garlic, oregano, rosemary, etc.
Typical Recipes are
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Lemon Thyme
This type will have yellow-green leaves that are lemon-scented, making it perfect for chicken and fish dishes.
Typical recipes
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Caraway Thyme
If you are not familiar with caraway – the flavour is a bit like mild aniseed with a subtle liquorice hint. It is sometimes used as a substitute for caraway in recipes, but named after it’s use when seasoning beef. (It’s latin name is Thymus herba-barona)
Typical recipes:
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Orange thyme
The orange one combines both the original flavour with a citrus orange peel taste and is a great companion to the Lemon variety.
Typical recipes:
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How to prepare thyme
Thyme is very simple to prepare
- Wash the thyme before usings
- Then either use the whole sprig or simply remove leaves and bin the stalk.
- If you want to strip the leaves, hold a stalk at the top and run your thumb and forefinger along the stalk from top to botto.
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Or the video shows ‘step by step’ instructions.
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How to start
Hopefully our guide showing how to grow thym eindoors has helped.