Published: 28/01/2023 | Last Updated: 21/08/2026 | Reading Time: 35 minutes

Growing Pizza Thyme in Australian Gardens – Complete Care Guide

Pizza Thyme (Thymus pulegioides ‘Tabor’) is the thyme that converts people who thought they didn’t much care for thyme. Where the standard culinary form offers tiny needle-like leaves and a restrained flavour, this selection carries broad, glossy, oval foliage packed with a far higher concentration of essential oils, giving it an aroma intense enough that a single sprig will carry a whole pot of sauce¹. Bred from the wild European broad-leaved thyme rather than the Mediterranean common thyme, it brings a warmer, rounder, slightly peppery character to the kitchen while behaving in the garden like the tough, sun-loving, drought-hardy sub-shrub its family is known for.

For Australian gardeners, that combination is unusually useful. This is a plant that earns its place twice over: it is a genuinely productive culinary herb, and it is also a low, spreading, evergreen ground cover that shrugs off heat, reflected glare from paving and long dry spells. It thrives in the Mediterranean-style conditions of Adelaide and Perth, performs beautifully through Melbourne’s dry summers and cool winters, and does very well in Sydney and along the Central Coast provided it gets sharp drainage and full sun. Growing Pizza Thyme in humid subtropical zones such as Brisbane is entirely possible too, though it asks for a raised, gritty position and a bit of respect for the wet season.

This guide covers everything needed to grow Pizza Thyme well in Australian conditions: choosing the right position, preparing soil that drains fast enough to keep it happy, watering and feeding through each season, when and how hard to prune, how to harvest for maximum flavour, the handful of pests and diseases that trouble it, and how to combine it with other plants for both good looks and good cooking. There is also a month-by-month care calendar built around Australian seasons rather than northern hemisphere ones, and answers to the questions gardeners ask most often about this particular thyme.

What Makes Pizza Thyme Different from Common Thyme

Origin and natural habitat

Pizza Thyme belongs to Thymus pulegioides, a species native across Europe and known in Britain as large thyme or broad-leaved thyme². This matters more than it sounds. Most culinary thyme sold in Australia descends from Thymus vulgaris, a plant of dry limestone hillsides around the Mediterranean. Thymus pulegioides comes instead from European grasslands, heaths and woodland edges, where soils tend to be lighter in lime and slightly more acidic³. The practical result for Australian gardeners is a thyme that copes better with the neutral to mildly acidic soils found across much of coastal New South Wales and Victoria, without needing the lime dressing that common thyme often appreciates.

The ‘Tabor’ selection was developed specifically as a kitchen cultivar, chosen for leaf size and oil content rather than looks⁴. It forms a low, prostrate, well-branched mat rather than the upright woody bush habit of common thyme, which is why it reads as a ground cover in the garden even though it is technically a small sub-shrub.

Key ornamental and culinary features

The foliage is the headline. Leaves are broad, oval and glossy mid-green, noticeably larger than the fine needles of standard thyme, which makes stripping and chopping vastly quicker in the kitchen⁵. That larger leaf surface carries a high proportion of aromatic oils, producing a scent that is warm, savoury and slightly sharp, with a peppery edge that stands up to tomato, garlic and long cooking. Brushing past a planting on a warm Adelaide or Perth afternoon releases the fragrance across the whole garden bed.

Through summer the mat is covered in small tubular flowers in soft pink to violet, carried in whorls at the stem tips⁶. They are modest individually but collectively turn the planting into a haze of colour and, more importantly, a serious bee attraction. In European nursery catalogues it is routinely listed as a bee pasture plant, and the same holds true in Australian gardens.

Growth habit and mature size

Expect a plant that reaches roughly 10-20cm in height and spreads to around 40cm across within two seasons⁷. Growth from a young tubestock plant is quick in warm weather, with most of the spread happening through spring and early summer. The habit is dense and mounding rather than strictly flat, so it will not creep between pavers the way elfin or creeping thyme does, but it holds its shape far better and provides much more usable harvest. Roots are fibrous and relatively shallow, which is exactly why drainage matters so much and why the plant establishes so readily from a small tubestock plant.

Essential Growing Requirements for Pizza Thyme

Light requirements

Full sun is non-negotiable for good flavour. Pizza Thyme needs a minimum of six hours of direct sun daily, and eight is better. Plants grown in part shade survive but grow soft, leggy and noticeably less aromatic, because essential oil production is driven by sunlight and mild water stress⁸. In Melbourne, Hobart and Canberra, give it the hottest, brightest position available. In Perth, Adelaide and inland regions where summer temperatures regularly exceed 38°C, a position receiving strong morning sun with light shade from around 3pm produces the best combination of flavour and foliage quality.

Reflected heat is a bonus rather than a problem. Plantings against north-facing walls, beside stone, along gravel paths or at the edge of paving all perform exceptionally well, which is why this herb suits Mediterranean-style garden design so naturally.

Temperature and humidity

Pizza Thyme is genuinely hardy at both ends. It handles frost well, remaining evergreen through Melbourne, Canberra and Tasmanian winters, and tolerates heat to the high thirties provided its roots are not sitting in hot, wet soil. The real limiting factor in Australia is not temperature but humidity. Prolonged warm, humid, still conditions encourage fungal problems and root rot far more readily than any cold snap will. This is the single most important thing to understand before planting in Brisbane, the Gold Coast or northern New South Wales.

Space and positioning

Allow 25-30cm between plants for a continuous ground cover, or 20cm for a tighter herb-bed edging. Air circulation matters as much as spacing does, so avoid tucking plants into still corners hemmed in by taller shrubs. Position it at the front of a bed, along a border edge, or at the top of a slope or retaining wall where water drains away rather than collects. Elevated positions also let the plant tumble slightly, which shows the flowering mat off well.

Soil Preparation and Planting Guide

Ideal soil conditions

Drainage beats fertility every single time with this plant. Pizza Thyme wants a light, open, gritty soil that dries out between waterings, and it actively dislikes rich, heavily composted beds. Over-fertile soil produces soft, leggy growth that loses its compact shape and, critically, dilutes the essential oils that make this cultivar worth growing⁹. A pH of 6.0 to 7.5 suits it, and unlike common thyme it does not require added lime.

On the heavy clay soils common across Melbourne, Adelaide and parts of western Sydney, improvement is essential. Work in coarse washed sand or fine gravel to open the structure, and consider applying gypsum to improve clay drainage before planting. On the sandy soils of Perth and coastal areas, the opposite adjustment applies: add a modest amount of compost purely to hold a little moisture, but keep it restrained. In heavier ground of any kind, the simplest reliable solution is to plant into a raised mound 15-20cm above the surrounding bed so water always moves away from the crown.

Container growing

Pizza Thyme is outstanding in containers and is one of the easiest herbs to keep on a sunny balcony or courtyard in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane. Choose a container with generous drainage holes and use a free-draining premium potting mix cut with around one third coarse sand, perlite or fine gravel. Standard potting mixes hold too much moisture on their own. Position the container in full sun and let the mix dry noticeably between waterings. Our guide to container gardening and nutrition in confined spaces covers feeding rates for herbs grown this way.

Planting technique and timing

Spring, from September through November, is the ideal planting window across most of Australia, giving the plant a full warm season to establish. In Perth, Adelaide and other Mediterranean-climate areas, autumn planting from March to May works equally well, taking advantage of winter rainfall for establishment. In subtropical Brisbane, autumn and early winter planting avoids the worst of the wet season. Avoid planting in the middle of summer heatwaves anywhere.

Because these arrive as young tubestock, handling is simple. Water the plant thoroughly an hour before planting. Dig a hole slightly wider than the root plug and no deeper, so the crown sits level with or a fraction above the surrounding soil, never below it. Firm the soil gently around the roots, water in well to settle everything, and resist the urge to add fertiliser at planting. For a step-by-step walkthrough of the technique, see our guide to planting tubestock plants, and if you are new to this way of buying plants, our explanation of what tubestock is and why it establishes faster is worth five minutes.

Keep the soil lightly moist, never saturated, for the first six to eight weeks. Once you see fresh growth pushing out from the tips, begin stretching the intervals between waterings to encourage the roots to go looking for moisture.

Watch: How to Plant Your Tubestock Pizza Thyme

Watering and Feeding Pizza Thyme in Australian Conditions

Water requirements through the seasons

Pizza Thyme is one of the most water-thrifty edible plants available to Australian gardeners, and once established it is a legitimate choice for water-wise and low-water garden design. The golden rule is to water deeply but infrequently, allowing the top 3-4cm of soil to dry completely between waterings. Shallow daily watering is the fastest way to kill it.

Wilting is rare and usually indicates severe drought. Far more common is the opposite signal: yellowing lower leaves, blackening at the base of stems and a general loss of vigour, all of which point to too much water rather than too little. During extended wet periods, particularly a Brisbane or Sydney summer downpour sequence, simply stop watering altogether and let nature take its course.

Feeding for flavour, not bulk

This is where most gardeners go wrong. Pizza Thyme performs best on lean soil, and heavy feeding actively works against you by producing bulky, soft foliage with diluted oil content and a floppier habit. One light application of a balanced slow release fertiliser in early spring is genuinely all an in-ground plant needs for the entire year¹⁰.

Container-grown plants are the exception, since nutrients leach out with every watering. Give these a half-strength liquid feed once monthly through spring and summer only, stopping entirely over winter. If you prefer to avoid synthetic products in an edible bed, a dilute seaweed solution or a light dressing of well-aged compost works perfectly well; our guide to natural alternatives to synthetic fertilisers sets out suitable rates.

Mulching

Mulch with gravel, coarse sand, crushed rock or decomposed granite rather than bark, straw or compost. Organic mulches hold moisture against the crown and stems and are a direct invitation to rot. A mineral mulch does the opposite: it keeps the crown dry, suppresses weeds, moderates soil temperature and reflects extra light and warmth back into the plant, which lifts oil concentration.

Pruning, Harvesting and Ongoing Maintenance

Harvesting for maximum flavour

Because Pizza Thyme is evergreen, you can harvest year round in most Australian climates, but flavour is not constant. Oil concentration peaks in the period just before the flowers open, typically late spring into early summer, roughly November and December. Harvest in the morning once dew has dried but before the day’s heat drives off the volatile oils.

Snip whole stems with scissors or secateurs rather than pulling individual leaves, which tears the plant. Never take more than about one third of the foliage at a single harvest, and always cut back to a point where green growth remains below the cut. The broad leaves strip off the stems easily by running your fingers down from tip to base, which is precisely why cooks favour this cultivar over fine-leaved thymes.

Pruning for shape and longevity

Thyme becomes woody and bare in the centre with age unless it is pruned regularly. Give the plant a proper shearing immediately after flowering, generally late February or March, cutting back by about a third and shaping the mound as you go¹¹. Follow with a lighter tidy-up in early spring, around September, to remove any winter-damaged tips and encourage dense new growth.

The critical rule: never cut back into bare woody stems with no green growth. Thyme regenerates poorly from old wood, and a hard cut into the woody base often kills the branch outright. Regular light pruning from the plant’s first year prevents you ever needing to make that decision.

Expected lifespan and renewal

A well-grown, regularly pruned plant will give three to five productive years before the centre becomes too woody. This is entirely normal for the genus rather than a sign of failure. Most gardeners plant a fresh run every three years or so and stagger them, which keeps the harvest consistent. At tubestock prices, renewal is inexpensive enough to do without a second thought.

Solving Common Pizza Thyme Problems

Why is my Pizza Thyme dying in the middle?

A bare, woody centre with green growth only around the edges is the classic ageing pattern, and it is caused by insufficient pruning rather than disease. Shear the plant back by a third after flowering each year from its first season and the problem largely disappears. If the centre is already bare and woody, you cannot restore it by cutting into that wood. Trim the surrounding growth to keep the plant tidy and plan a replacement.

Blackened, mushy stems at the base accompanied by rapid collapse is a different story entirely, and points to root rot caused by waterlogged soil. This is the number one killer of thyme in Australian gardens. Improve drainage, stop supplementary watering, remove organic mulch from around the crown and replace it with gravel.

Leggy, sprawling growth with weak flavour

Almost always caused by too little sun or too much fertiliser, and sometimes both. Soil that is too rich encourages the plant to grow fast and soft, losing its compact shape¹². Stop feeding entirely for a full season, move container plants to a brighter position, and prune to encourage branching. Flavour recovers within a few months of correcting the conditions.

Pest management

Pizza Thyme is refreshingly pest resistant, largely because the same aromatic oils we grow it for act as a natural deterrent. Three pests appear occasionally. Spider mites turn up during hot, dry, dusty summers, showing as fine stippling and webbing on the foliage; a strong hose spray and improved humidity around the plant usually resolves it. Aphids sometimes cluster on soft spring growth, particularly after a nitrogen application, and are easily dislodged. Slugs and snails may nibble young tubestock plants during their first wet weeks, so keep an eye out until the plant toughens up.

Because this is a plant destined for the kitchen, always favour physical removal, water sprays and encouragement of beneficial predators before reaching for anything else. Our guide to organic pest control for Australian gardens covers safe approaches for edible plantings.

Disease prevention

Aside from root rot, the main concern is powdery mildew, which appears as a greyish-white dusting on foliage during humid, still weather. Prevention is straightforward: full sun, generous spacing, no overhead watering, and thinning the plant’s centre to improve airflow. Remove affected growth promptly and avoid watering in the late afternoon, which leaves foliage damp overnight.

Fascinating Facts and Additional Uses for Pizza Thyme

The name is a marketing masterstroke – and it undersells the plant

‘Pizza Thyme’ is a trade name attached to Thymus pulegioides ‘Tabor’, chosen because the flavour profile suits Italian cooking so well. In German nurseries it is sold as Pizza-Thymian and in Britain simply as Thyme ‘Tabor’¹³. The name has stuck because it is genuinely descriptive, but it does the plant a disservice by implying a single use. European growers recommend it just as strongly for grilled fish, pasta sauces, roasted potatoes, hearty stews, stuffings and slow-cooked meat dishes¹⁴. It is also a traditional component of a bouquet garni, where its broader leaves make it easier to bundle than fine-leaved thymes.

Why the leaves are bigger – and why that matters

Thymus pulegioides is naturally a larger-leaved species than Thymus vulgaris, and ‘Tabor’ was selected to push that trait further. The reason it matters is not just convenience in the kitchen. A higher proportion of leaf blade to stem means a higher yield of usable herb per harvest, and the greater leaf surface area carries a heavier load of the aromatic compounds thymol and carvacrol that define thyme’s flavour and its historic reputation as a preservative and antiseptic herb.

Wildlife and ecological value

Flowering thyme is one of the great small-scale bee plants, listed in European nursery catalogues specifically as a bee pasture species¹⁵. In Australian gardens, the summer flowers draw European honeybees, native stingless bees, hoverflies and small native solitary bees, along with a range of tiny parasitic wasps that are valuable natural predators of garden pests. Because the flowering period falls in mid-summer when many spring-flowering shrubs have finished, it fills a genuine gap in the nectar calendar. If you are building habitat deliberately, our guide to attracting native birds, bees and butterflies explains how to layer flowering periods across the year.

Lesser-known uses

Beyond cooking, thyme has a long documented history as a herbal tea in Europe, and traditional European sources record its use for digestive complaints and as a chest and bronchial remedy¹⁶. These are historical and traditional uses recorded in the literature rather than medical recommendations, and anyone considering herbal preparations should speak with a qualified health professional first.

In the garden itself, the dried stems make excellent aromatic additions to a barbecue or smoker, thrown onto coals in the final minutes of cooking. Sprigs also work well in infused oils and vinegars, and the flowering stems are lovely in small posies. As a living use, a Pizza Thyme mat planted along a hot driveway strip or between stepping stones does real work suppressing weeds in conditions where almost nothing else will grow.

Using Pizza Thyme in Australian Garden Design

Landscape applications

The most underrated quality of Pizza Thyme is that it works as a designed ground cover, not just a herb parked in a vegetable patch. Its neat mounding habit, evergreen foliage and summer flower haze make it a legitimate front-of-border plant. Mass plant it in drifts along a sunny path edge, run it as a low soft edging to a gravel driveway, spill it over the top of a dry stone or rendered retaining wall, or use it to knit together the spaces in a rock garden where the sharp drainage suits it perfectly.

It also handles the hardest positions in a typical Australian garden: hot strips beside concrete, the reflected-heat zone against a north-facing brick wall, and the dry root-competition areas near established shrubs. In xeriscape and water-wise plantings it earns its place by being both ornamental and edible, which very few drought-tolerant ground covers manage.

Garden styles that suit it

• Mediterranean: The natural home. Combine with silver foliage, gravel mulch, terracotta and a restrained plant palette.
• Cottage and informal: Softens hard edges and weaves between taller perennials. See our guide to informal and cottage garden design.
• Formal herb and potager gardens: Clips neatly enough to define the corners and edges of geometric beds.
• Coastal: Tolerates wind, sandy soil and reflected light. Keep it out of direct salt spray.
• Modern and minimalist: Works as a textural mass planting between paving and gravel where a single species is repeated at scale.

Small spaces, containers and paving

In courtyards and on balconies across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, Pizza Thyme is one of the best value edible plants available, because it needs so little space and so little water. It also works spilling from the edge of a raised planter or a hanging basket in full sun, where the trailing habit shows off the summer flowers. Planted in wide gaps between pavers or along the edges of stepping stones, it releases scent as you walk, though it should be given the edges rather than the centre of a genuinely busy path since it tolerates only light foot traffic.

Perfect Companion Plants for Pizza Thyme

Culinary companions with matching needs

The easiest way to succeed with a herb bed is to group plants that want identical conditions: full sun, lean soil, sharp drainage and infrequent water. These all qualify.

• Rosemary: The classic partner. Provides upright structure behind the low thyme mat and wants exactly the same dry, sunny position.
• Common Thyme: Growing both lets you compare the finer, sharper flavour against Pizza Thyme’s broader, warmer one, and the differing leaf textures look good together.
• Lemon Thyme: Adds a citrus note to the same planting with an identical care routine.
• French Lavender: Shares the drainage and sun requirements, extends the flowering season and doubles the bee attraction.
• Mexican Tarragon: A heat-tolerant anise-flavoured herb that copes with Australian summers better than French tarragon.

Ornamental companions for contrast

Silver and blue-grey foliage flatters thyme’s mid-green leaves, while fine textures contrast well against its broader leaf.

• Cotton Lavender: Silver, aromatic, drought-hardy and clips into neat mounds beside the thyme.
• Helichrysum italicum: The curry plant, with silver needles and a completely different fragrance in the same conditions.
• Blue Fescue: Tight blue-grey tufts that punctuate a thyme mat beautifully in gravel plantings.
• Seaside Daisy: Self-sowing, tough and long flowering, ideal tumbling alongside thyme over a wall edge.
• Gold Mound Sedum: Golden succulent foliage that lights up against green thyme and demands the same dry treatment.

What not to plant with it

Avoid pairing Pizza Thyme with anything that needs consistently moist, rich soil. Mints, basil, coriander and leafy vegetables all want the opposite treatment and will either drown the thyme or be starved by it. Keep the thirsty herbs in their own bed or container and let the Mediterranean group live together.

Other Thymes and Ground Cover Alternatives

How Pizza Thyme compares to other culinary thymes

Growing all three together is a common approach in Australian herb gardens, and they combine attractively because the leaf sizes and growth habits differ enough to read as deliberate planting. Browse the wider culinary herb collection to build out a full kitchen bed.

Alternatives if your conditions are too wet or shady

If your garden simply cannot deliver full sun and sharp drainage, forcing thyme into it will only end in disappointment. Better options for those positions include Pratia Blue Star Creeper for damper, part-shaded ground cover, Irish Moss for a soft green mat in cooler moist positions, or Zoysia No Mow Grass where you want a walkable lawn alternative rather than a herb. None of these are edible, but all will succeed where thyme would rot.

Year-Round Care Calendar for Pizza Thyme

Frequently Asked Questions About Pizza Thyme

Related Gardening Guides You Might Find Helpful

Final Thoughts on Growing Pizza Thyme

Pizza Thyme is one of those uncommon plants that succeeds on two entirely separate briefs at once. As a culinary herb it is arguably the most useful thyme available to Australian cooks, with broad leaves that strip easily, a high oil content and a warm, peppery flavour that holds up to serious cooking. As a garden plant it is an evergreen, drought-hardy, pet-safe, bee-friendly ground cover that thrives in the hot, dry, awkward positions where most things sulk. From Perth and Adelaide’s Mediterranean summers to Melbourne and Hobart’s frosty winters, and across the temperate gardens of Sydney and the Central Coast, it asks for remarkably little once it is in the right spot.

Success comes down to three things, and none of them involve much effort. Give it full sun, because sunlight is what drives the essential oils that make this cultivar worth growing. Give it drainage that borders on sharp, because wet feet will kill this plant far faster than heat, drought or frost ever will. And shear it back by a third each year after flowering, because that single annual cut is what keeps it dense, productive and away from the woody, hollow-centred decline that catches out so many thyme growers. Resist the urge to feed it generously and water it kindly, and it will reward you with better flavour than any pampered plant ever could.

Every plant we sell is propagated by us on the Central Coast and sent express to your door across NSW, VIC, QLD and the ACT. Because tubestock starts from $3.95, you can plant a full herb border or a run of edging rather than a single specimen, and it will catch up to larger plants within a season. Browse the full range at Garden Variety Online, or text Danika on 0488 062 502 for personalised advice on growing Pizza Thyme in your climate and conditions.

References

1. Hishtil Nurseries (2025). Thymus pulegioides ‘Tabor’ – Variety Profile. Vegetative Herb Collection.
2. Royal Horticultural Society (2025). Thymus pulegioides ‘Tabor’ – broad-leaved thyme ‘Tabor’. RHS Plant Finder, London.
3. Stace, C. (2019). New Flora of the British Isles, 4th Edition. C&M Floristics, Suffolk.
4. Hooks Green Herbs (2025). Thyme ‘Tabor’ Growing Notes. Staffordshire, United Kingdom.
5. MyGardenLife Plant Library (2025). Thyme ‘Tabor’ (Thymus pulegioides).
6. Royal Horticultural Society (2025). Thymus – Genus Description and Cultivation. RHS, London.
7. Hishtil Nurseries (2025). Growth Habit and Dimensions – Thymus pulegioides ‘Tabor’.
8. Hay, R.K.M. & Waterman, P.G. (2018). Volatile Oil Crops: Their Biology, Biochemistry and Production. Longman Scientific, Harlow.
9. Hooks Green Herbs (2025). Soil Requirements for Thyme ‘Tabor’. Cultivation Notes.
10. Handreck, K. & Black, N. (2022). Growing Media for Ornamental Plants and Turf, 5th Edition. UNSW Press, Sydney.
11. Stewart, A. (2023). Let’s Get Growing: Practical Advice for Australian Gardeners. ABC Books, Sydney.
12. Hooks Green Herbs (2025). Preventing Leggy Growth in Culinary Thyme.
13. Gärtnerei Bender (2025). Thymus pulegioides ‘Tabor’ – Pizza-Thymian. Bioland Herb Catalogue, Germany.
14. Häussermann Stauden und Gehölze (2025). Pizza-Thymian ‘Tabor’ – Verwendung und Standort. Möglingen, Germany.
15. Gärtnerei Bender (2025). Bienenweide Pflanzen – Bee Pasture Plant Listings. Germany.
16. Bown, D. (2020). The Royal Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Herbs and Their Uses. Dorling Kindersley, London.