Thyme seeds for the kitchen herb garden, the windowsill, or the general project of improving things. Thyme thrives in poor, dry soil, which is either a metaphor or simply very good news for people who forget to water.

Thyme is the perennial culinary herb that grows best when left slightly underfed and underwatered. Each packet is hermetically vacuum-sealed -- removing the oxygen that causes standard paper seed packets to lose germination viability within approximately one year. State law requires a 3-year viability label on sealed packaging. NASA research on hermetic seed storage indicates viability of up to 10 years under proper conditions. Every packet is non-GMO and germination-tested at independent third-party labs before it earns its Japanese woodblock print artwork.

How to Grow Thyme from Seed

Sowing and Germination

Sow indoors 6-8 weeks before last frost. Surface sow -- needs light. Germination 14-21 days.

Care and Harvest

Perennial. Prefers lean, dry soil. Harvest before flowering. Excellent with everything.

Why Vacuum-Sealed Seeds Last Longer

Standard paper seed packets are permeable to oxygen and moisture -- the two primary causes of seed degradation. Most paper-packaged seeds begin losing germination viability after approximately one year, contributing to significant garden-industry waste: packets purchased, not planted, expired, discarded. Shido Seeds are hermetically vacuum-sealed. The packet does not expire quietly in a drawer. It waits.

About the Packaging

Every Shido seed packet is illustrated in the style of Japanese 1910s woodblock printing -- designed and drawn in-house by Chive, the Toronto ceramics studio that has been exhibiting at the Chelsea Flower Show in London every year and does not, as a matter of principle, sell to big-box retailers. Customers collect the packets as a series. This was not the original plan.