The Aromatic Herb That Will Help Your Rosemary Thrive In The Garden

If you've ever effused about an herb garden you're growing, you've probably had a friend warble Simon & Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" in response. Based on a traditional English ballad, this famous tune is known for its melancholy "parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme" refrain. As it turns out, this lyric is a good lesson in what to plant together. That's because it highlights several herb pairs that make perfect garden companions. For example, thyme (Thymus vulgaris) can help rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus) live its best life. Plus, pairing these fragrant culinary plants can make garden care simple for you. Both thyme and rosemary love full sun and detest overly wet soil.  In other words, it's easy to grow them side by side in a bright spot you water less frequently. 

Planting thyme with your rosemary can also help keep bugs at bay. Rosemary will repel some pests on its own, but installing thyme nearby boosts your garden's pest-fighting power. For example, planting these herbs together can banish cabbage moths that seek out other plants in your garden. This dynamic duo also repels mosquitoes eager to bite you as you harvest herbs and vegetables. Additionally, thyme can help keep rabbits and deer away from plants they like to munch, and rosemary deters the flies, slugs, and snails that sometimes bother thyme. This is thanks to rosemary's strong scent, which shoos many ants and beetles as well. Rosemary also attracts bees and parasitic wasps that can benefit your whole garden. You can even grow creeping forms of thyme and rosemary as ground covers to deter pests in your yard.

When planting thyme and rosemary together, select a planting site that's drenched with sun but not water. Both herbs like soil that's light, loose, and infused with silt, so amend it with compost and builder's sand if it's heavy or compacted. Don't worry if your soil contains some rocks — thyme and rosemary are happy to put down roots around them. To ensure adequate spacing and airflow, put thyme in the ground first and leave at least half a foot between each plant. Then add rosemary, which needs more room to expand. Every rosemary plant requires a buffer of 2 feet or more on each side.

Since thyme thrives in USDA hardiness zones 5 through 9, you can grow it outside year-round in most parts of the United States. Rosemary is best suited for zones 7 through 11 since it starts to die once temperatures drop below 23 degrees Fahrenheit. That said, you can pot it and bring it inside for overwintering in colder climates. When doing so, place it near a sunny window and keep an eye out for houseplant pests such as spider mites. 

One of the best tricks for growing thyme in an outdoor garden is to prune it regularly. This keeps it from developing too much woody growth, which looks unpleasant and isn't suitable for cooking. In general, you should trim it after it flowers in the summertime and as you harvest it throughout the growing season. Rosemary also benefits from pruning. Remove dead sections in the late winter, and then snip off some of its flexible green tips during the spring and summer.