Wild Thyme Lawn: Seeds or Plugs?
Answered by: Conrad Richter
Question from: Bridget
Posted on: March 9, 2002

I have a small front lawn (7ft by 14ft) that I want to replace with a ground cover such as Wild Thyme. Would it be best to order packets of seeds or would I be better off buying a plug tray? How do I know how much to buy and when is a good time to order and plant?

Please accept our apologies for the very long delay in answering your query. We get so many questions that we cannot always keep up.

Whether you choose seeds or plugs in the case of wild thyme is really matter of convenience and cost. Plugs will help to establish a lawn much faster than seeds will, and seeds require more care. But the cost of plugs is much higher.

For an area the size of your lawn – 100 square feet – you will need four plugs per square foot, or 400 plugs. Plug trays are counted as 120 plugs per trays, but in reality they have a few more, 128 plugs. So you could stretch things a bit and go with three trays, or to be sure, four trays. Trays are $50 Canadian or $35 U.S. (2002 prices), plus shipping.

To plant the same area by seed there are two ways: direct seeding and indirect seeding. Direct seeding is seeding the lawn area directly with seed. Because the seed is so small (much smaller than grass seeds) and because the seedlings are relatively slow to establish, direct seeding requires more care not to plant too deeply, to water properly and to keep the weeds out. But then you don’t have the bother of seedflats and transplanting.

Indirect seeding is where you sow seeds in seedboxes or plug trays and then when they are strong enough to transplant, you transplant to the lawn spaced like the plugs mentioned earlier at 4 per sq. ft.

To direct seed, you need 1-2 grams per 100 sq. ft. For indirect sowing you need 0.5-1.0 grams. The smallest bulk size we sell is 10 grams which is more than you need; but if you get 10-12 packets you should have plenty for 100 sq.ft.

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