Thyme is very easy to propagate. If you buy a couple of healthy 1-gallon plants you can have hundreds of new plants to put in the ground in a year or two. If you search on the internet for "propagate thyme" you will find several web sites with detailed directions and helpful hints.

I started about two years ago with two plants. In addition, I got cuttings from a few other people with well-established patches. Last fall, I planted about 200 plants in the ground, and I'm still dividing new plants every other week.

The most helpful tip I got for starting cuttings: bigger is not necessarily better. Two inches is a fine size for a WT cutting. Strip off the leaves from the lower two thirds of the stem and stick it in your rooting medium. I use fine perlite. Almost all of my cuttings rooted in two or three weeks.

From there, I put them in four inch pots to get established. Some went into trays. When the tray fills out, I cut it into four inch squares, put a handful back in the tray and the rest in pots. I have found that letting each plant get well established in a pot before going in the ground dramatically increases their survival.

I figure to cover the area I want to fill in, I will eventually need about 1600 plants. I have about half of what I need. And I started with just TWO one-gallon pots.

Thank you piana juggler, that makes good sense. I have started herbs from cuttings before (especially rosemary), but never more than a few at a time and I started them in water then transferred them to a mix of potting soil and sand (it is mostly sandy here). Does soil work better or is there a reason you use soil rather than water?
Does it keep other plants out or do you constantly have to pull up grass and weeds?
I bought 2 elfin thyme recently, I will give them a try.
Thanks for the info. Brandy