comfrey

This is a wonder plant. I first bought it because it was labelled as an 'heirloom' plant. I liked the sound of heirloom - a plant that has stood the test of time. Little did I know how much I would come to rely on comfrey for all manner of things.

Comfrey is great as a compost activator - it encourages nitrogen growth and decomposition. You can pull off a few leaves and just throw them into the compost bin. I do this all the time in summer when I struggle to keep up with growth. Click here to read about composting comfrey.

As it is a good source of nitrogen, I have been planting beans or peas (legumes) in the same bed. The crops seem to do very well indeed - as does the parsley, a permanant friend of comfrey in my patch.

In winter, it looks like the plant dies, but it goes into hibernation. Usually, I cover it lightly with mulch to protect it from frost and it bounces back next season. As it rots, it releases nitrogen into the ground. Click here to learn about growing comfrey

Historically, comfrey has been used for many reasons. Click here to find out how comfrey has withstood the test of time.

vigorous growth

The first season was particularly spectacular. With no clear idea of what we wanted to do long term, we simply planted what we liked to eat and what we thought looked nice. The result was a cottage garden mix of herbs, flowers and vegetables. Within weeks, the beds were bursting at their seems and we realised we would have to expand our site.

So in here we had: pineapple sage, comfrey, parsley, wormwood. Obvioulsy, all this went nuts living on a diet of solid chicken poop! The pineapple sage has gone and the wormwood too (although, I confess that I may have prematiurely removed it instead of pruning it hard), but the comfrey and parsely are still thriving. They seem to love being next to each other, so there they will stay.

Incredibly, I planted a pumpkin in the middle of all this. Obviously, I soon learned how much room a pumpkin needed. If you look closely, you may see that the tomatoes are looking a bit crazed... I am scratching my head in puzzlement. I am yet to master the art of growing tomatoes. Either it is the climate here, or I just don't have it in me to grow a consistent crop.