Strip the leaves off the stems with your fingers into soups, stews, onto pizzas, in sauces or stuffings, or gather the stems into a bunch, using the most flexible stem to wind around the rest and tie into a knot, then letting the bunch simmer. Hoik the bunch out before serving. Thyme is fragrant, delicious, and the secret of taking peasant food and making it high cuisine, but thyme stems either choke you or get caught in your teeth.

Thyme can be dried. In fact, it dries extremely well. It just doesn't taste like thyme afterwards. I'm not sure what it does smell like - part disinfectant crossed with the stuffing of a commercial rotisserie chook, but don't bother with it. If you want to cook with thyme, dash to the garden centre and buy a pot of it for about the same price as a packet of the other stuff.

There are hundreds of kinds of thyme available if you hunt for them, and possibly many thousands - I found at least six different scented thymes on one Cretan hillside, all delicious - our landlady would come in each night to sniff dinner to see which one I had chosen, then nod approvingly. Thymes cross with extreme promiscuity, so if you grow several varieties you may well find seedlings of several more, though thyme is usually grown from cuttings. Stick a branch of a thyme plant onto the ground, cover it with soil, wait till it grows roots a few months later, then cut it from the original bush. One bush can become a dozen in a year, or more if you put your mind and fingers to it.

Kitchen thyme (T. vulgaris). is the best known of all thymes, the classic culinary thyme. It grows up to 40cm high, has grey-green leaves on twiggy branchlets and flowers in summer with small 'two-lipped' whitish to pale purple flowers. It's a bit tough to cook with -make sure you remove all the twigs, and even the leaves are a bit tough to scatter on pizza, focaccia or in a salad.

Westmorland or Turkey thyme (T. vulgaris Westmorland) is an incredibly fragrant thyme, and one of the best for cooking, with much softer leaves than kitchen thyme. It is also one of the most attractive thymes, a rich, deep green with a larger leaf than common thyme. It makes a very low bush, almost a mat.

One of my 'scatter favourites' thymes was bought labelled 'Turkey Thyme'. I have no idea of its Latin name, or even if it is associated with Turkey the country, or turkey as in 'add this plentifully to your turkey stuffing'. It's nowhere near as fragrant as kitchen thyme, but the leaves are larger and far more tender, and its new shoots are soft, so if you pick often and feed and water well, you may not even have to 'de-stem' it, though do chop it all well.

Orange peel thyme (T. nitidus) is another one I adore. It's a small shrubby thyme, with small tough blue grey leaves and pale pinkish lavender flowers, and often not as many leaves as you'd expect on a branch of thyme - much mote stem than leaf. But the fragrance is wonderful - orange and spice - and can turn a plain sauce or plain tomato and cheese pizza into magic.

Lemon thyme (T. x citriodorus) may lure you into thinking you are getting two flavours for the price of one. Actually it does neither thyme or lemon terribly well. Lemon thyme is better than no thyme at all, but it's better to choose a richer flavoured variety of thyme and plant a lemon tree.

Silver Posy Thyme (T. serphyllum 'Silver Posy') is one of the thymes bred to look ornamental, though it can be used in cooking too. The leaves are bright green with silver edges, and the scent is strongly herbal rather than a classic thyme perfume. It will tolerate more shade than common thyme - and conversely, won't take the extremes of heat and dryness that common thyme thrives on. You might also like to look for Grey Woolly Thyme ( T. lanuginosus.), Red flowered thyme (T. serphyllum coccineus), Pink Chintz (T. serphyllum 'Pink Chintz') and many many others to create a herbal lawn, with a few thousand dollars' worth of herb plants, or leave out every fourth paving stone and plant with thyme in the space.

The creeping thymes - flat and 'mown grass' like Creeping thyme, wild thyme, matting thyme (T. serphyllum, T. praecox and a confusion and profusion of many others) are all different in leaf size, colour and growth habits. Generally, though, all are fast growing, extremely prostrate and mat forming and all make excellent thyme lawns or wall edging. The flowers are pale pink to purple, from late summer to autumn.

Thyme soon becomes woody, and woody thyme stems may die back in frosts or hot and dry water. Prune each bush back by two thirds each spring, or better still, pick your thyme often in lieu of pruning. Every spring or summer 'top dress' it by scattering on guaranteed weed-free fresh soil or compost (weeding among the branches of thyme bushes is not fun). New roots will grow wherever the stems have been covered, thus rejuvenating your thyme plant.

The most important aspect of thyme growing however, is 'sniff before you buy'. Thyme will be more fragrant in summer, and in a hot sunny spot - near paving is perfect. But even in winter you can tell the magnificent fragranced thyme from the lush green pretenders. For the very best of thymes, sniff well.