Comfrey - the companion plant everyone should grow

comfrey is one of the most beautiful and resourceful beneficial plants that US fruit and veg growers can bring into our Gardens it's been used as a herb for over two-and-a-half thousand years it's a native of the UK and Europe but now it's widespread all around the globe thanks to English immigrants taking bits of this plant with them and the reason why they took this plant with them is because it's fantastic as a herb it's being used to treat joint injuries but for us gardeners it's all about what it can do for our fruit and vegetable plants now let's have a look at comfrey first of all we've got these beautiful purple flowers these are really popular with bees so they bring pollinating bees into the garden along with a whole host of other beneficial insects but look at these rough leaves here these coarse leaves okay you get loads of foliage on these country plants now below ground comfrey sends roots 3 metres so that's 10 foot that's one and a half times me standing up three metres down into the ground for that reason it's called a dynamic accumulator what happens well these roots that go so deep into the ground they effectively mined for nutrients and what they do is they draw those nutrients back up into the foliage so we're talking about loads of nitrogen calcium phosphorus potash and potassium and it's the potassium that makes this of such value to us because potassium is such an essential nutrient for the healthy growth of our plants there's lots of different ways you can use comfrey in your garden first of all you can make a liquid feed or you can wilt comfrey leaves and you can line trenches for planting things like potatoes or runner beans you can put comfrey leaves into the bottom of planting hole for a newly planted plant and it will release those nutrients as the plant grows people grow comfrey in orchards underneath fruit trees because as the foliage dies down it returns essential nutrients to the soil for more productive plants so of all of those probably the most useful one if you can get headrail there is comfrey tea liquid comfrey it does come with a warning though it absolutely stinks like a block toilet now if that hasn't put you off then this is how you can make some comfrey tea for your garden first find your comfrey which if you're growing it won't be too difficult but you will need quite a lot it depends on the size of your container cut down the right amount of comfrey and give it a really good shake to get rid of any insects that have come with it let them go back to getting on with their lives your containers should be big enough to store as much comfrey tea as you want so we normally go for a decent sized plastic dust bin with a fixable lid fill the container pretty much to the top with your loosely chopped up comfrey and then top this up with water to just below the rim of the container importantly secure the lid fast and then run away well just walk away find yourself in a safe place so after about a week come back holding your nose and carefully take off the lid you should find that you got some pretty well rotted comfrey tea in there and all you need to do now is to sieve this into your watering can and dilute it one part comfrey to about four parts water all so that it looks like weak tea then you can start using it in your garden so there you have it one of the most beautiful beneficial plants that we gardeners can use in our gardens and comfrey it's a perennial plant so what that means is in countries with cold winters the foliage will die back it'll come back again in the spring and the summer now to grow comfrey you can literally just get someone you know who's got some to cut a little bit of root out of the ground put that in your garden and away you go or you can buy seedlings from nurseries one thing to note though look at this bunch of comfrey here it's doing incredibly well and once you got it in your garden you're gonna probably have it in your garden to keep so put it in a place where you can afford to let this plant spread and grow if you're worried about it you can always grow it inside a tire stack so the roots will go down but the plant won't spread too wide it does need to go into the actual soil low so those roots can go down and mine those nutrients so don't be too fearful of growing this plant it's an absolute beauty it can do so much for us gardeners get some comfrey into your garden today and start a lifelong relationship that will be productive and beneficial for you and your garden

Channel: podgardening

Views: 64,915

Keywords: what is Comfrey?, How to use Comfrey?, Companion plants

Id: 0h68uqgX2Uo

Length: 4min 49sec (289 seconds)

Published: Sun May 17 2020