I feel your pain. My name is littlebug5, and I Am An Impatient Gardener too.

Have you ever heard the saying: The first year they sleep, the second year they creep, the third year they leap?

I think as long as they are alive and look healthy, I'd have to agree with littlebug - I think you just need to be a bit more patient.

Good luck!
Dee

Gardening is teaching me patience for sure. I bought some thyme last year and it really didn't do much but it's much larger and spreading this year. Same with my other plants.

The reasons could be soil related: is your soil adequate for the things you planted? Did you research them prior to planting? I know my soil composition and tend to plant things I know will thrive in it.

Second, does the sun/shade pattern give the plants optimum growing conditions? It's certainly a factor along with moisture levels.

Be patient and focus on improving your soil. Mulching with overlapped layers of corrugated cardboard will attract worms which will improve your soil. Healthy soil = healthy perennials.

Just a suggestion but if you're serious about gardening, do a shade study, close to the Summer Solstice, and mark where your garden areas get full-/part-sun as well as full/ part shade. Then stretch your imagination to plant things that adapt to multiple conditions. I have many things growing in part shade & part sun beds that are generally related to either shade or sun. In healthy soil, they've done well wherever they're planted.

I have a patch of garden in my yard that nothing has grown in for years

That statement suggests poor soil where even weeds don't grow, which also suggests there aren't enough worms thriving in it to enrich the soil. Worms = worm poop which = worm poop in the soil which = healthy soil along with healthy plants.

Last comment is gardening means having patience for plants to do what they do naturally. You aren't in control and fertilizers won't change that. Ma Nature calls the shots and as a gardener, your job is to wait until she's ready.

Your job is to plant the right things in healthy soil where they've a chance to survive/thrive. They'll take it from there...

Since thyme is in the process of taking over the parts of my lawn that are too hard for clover (rock ledge very close to the surface) I'm having a hard time imaging soil too poor for it. It may very well be they are having trouble getting out of the pockets of improved soil, and the pockets aren't big enough. But it is more probably they are just baby plants getting established.

I have both Irish moss and creeping thyme and they've grown a lot in the last few years. These are pretty hardy plants in my area. In fact, I find the moss sprouting up in other shadier areas farther from the "mother" plantings.

I agree with garden weed ... maybe the condition of the soil is the problem. The thing that struck me is that you said the area had been covered in river rock with weeds sprouting between them, which makes me think that the soil had become compacted over time and there isn't enough aeration..... you know, it's kind of "barren" underneath. If so, improving soil composition would really help.

Could post a picture to show this area?

The poster states the plants have only been in the ground a MONTH. A month isn't enough time to do anything. I suppose in a months time they could die, but even that might take longer.

Just just give them some more time.

Kevin