two years ago we planted woolly thyme and another type of creeping thyme as well as other types of ground covers on the stretch between the walk way and the road. Both types of thyme spread nicely, but the woolly thyme looked brown and dead once the snow melted after the first winter. We thought the salt from the road had killed it. But soon, it turned green, and turned into a well spreading ground cover during the summer season, so that it covers now abt. 3 ft by 8 ft. Well, after the second winter, the woolly thyme looks more hopeless (dead) than ever, whereas the other creeping thyme is healthy, green, and spreading. When I lift the brown scraggly mass of the woolly thyme, I can see a little bit of tiny green leaves here and there, but in most places I cannot see any green ( yet?)

My question, is, should I be patient and do nothing and hope for the best, as we did last year? Or should I cut back the scraggy brown mass (branches are longer now than after the first winter), hoping that more air will allow it to recuperate better? Or will the brown turn green, as it seemed to have done last year? I know we had an earlier spring last year, but it seems to me that the greening process happened much sooner after the snow melt.