Making Thyme
posted in General |Our sidewalk to the front door has probably laid limply there since 1942, when our house was built. It needs to be pulled up and relain, because when it rains (and how it rains), we get a big puddle next to the porch. The water should drain away from the house. The driveway’s the same way- maybe our house is in sort of a little depression. Fitting, eh? Need some soma for my house. The front walk is eternally overgrown from grasses in the yard. I edge it about four times in a summer, if Mrs B is that lucky.
About two years ago, I dug little ditches to the sides of the sidewalk and lined it with grey cottage bricks, to make it a little wider. I packed dirt between the bricks and then let it be. Last year it needed to be weeded; we have a lot of weeds. After I weeded it, I splurged (whoo hoo, a whole $4.00!) and bought some thyme and tried to pack it in around the bricks. Generally speaking, I think that if I plant enough non-weeds, they’ll keep the weeds from taking over. And I like the image of the rocks or the bricks with low-growing flowers among them, that’ll smell great when I walk on them. And when I used to work for the University of Oregon Family Housing, I mowed over someone’s herb garden (I’m still sorry!), and the resulting aroma made my mouth water.
Well, the thyme doesn’t seem to be working. Last fall, the thyme looked dead, all brown and scraggly. Over the winter and the beginning of spring, some clover, some crabgrass, some dandelions, some nettles all moved in to the decorative bricks. One more tick on the “nothing I do lasts” metronome that ticks whether I listen to it or not.
But today, as I walked home from next door, I saw teeny purple flowers peeking out around the bricks. The thyme isn’t dead, but it could use a hand. I’m off to find my trowel and some fertilizer.
I’d give you a photo, but with the recent upgrade for WordPress, the image-uploading stuff’s not working right with our php on this server.
