Discuss the 'Gardening on a budget' guide

twopenny

Comfrey is good stuff and easy. I used to pull all surplus plants and put them in unchopped with no problem.
Add nettles if you have any for an even better mix.

Silvertabby

Comfrey is also known as 'knitbone' oop north.  You use the dried herbs to make a compress for aches and pains.

When I joined the WRAF in the 1970s my dad insisted that I take a bag of knitbone with me, to help treat any training injuries.  My knowledge of waccy baccy was limited to what I had seen on TV, but I knew enough to know that turning up at a military training base with a plastic bag of dried herbs possibly wouldn't have been the best way to start my career.....

I managed to slip the (unmarked) bag into a waste bin on Preston station.  I did wonder if anyone found it, and what they did with it.  

Dustyevsky

Slinky said:

Dustyevsky said:

"Sprinkle lawn clippings (as long as not treated with chemicals) around plants to give a nitrogen boost - free fertiliser. Also grow comfrey and turn into a liquid feed."

Luke, via Facebook

Definitely grow comfrey, but only if it's the sterile variety Bocking14, which won't self-seed all over your garden.

Also, don't expect the neighbours or your OH to love the smell of fermenting comfrey as you give the barrel a good stir, maturing that liquid feed!

We've just started rotting some comfrey down to make some feed, however it's not Bocking14. We didn't have any flowers in it, just leaves, so should we be OK with this do you think? I am pulling small comfrey plants out on a regular basis.

All comfrey smells when rotted down in water. That may or may not be a problem, depending on your situation, the sort of container used etc. Using the leaves for a surface mulch, as Paspatur does, won't have this issue.

If you are organised enough to harvest before flowering, then the self-seeding shouldn't create difficulties either. I'm not that organised, so I grow the Bocking 14 plants in two rows along the edge of a field. They haven't travelled anywhere else in 10 years.

Slinky

Dustyevsky said:

Slinky said:

Dustyevsky said:

"Sprinkle lawn clippings (as long as not treated with chemicals) around plants to give a nitrogen boost - free fertiliser. Also grow comfrey and turn into a liquid feed."

Luke, via Facebook

Definitely grow comfrey, but only if it's the sterile variety Bocking14, which won't self-seed all over your garden.

Also, don't expect the neighbours or your OH to love the smell of fermenting comfrey as you give the barrel a good stir, maturing that liquid feed!

We've just started rotting some comfrey down to make some feed, however it's not Bocking14. We didn't have any flowers in it, just leaves, so should we be OK with this do you think? I am pulling small comfrey plants out on a regular basis.

All comfrey smells when rotted down in water. That may or may not be a problem, depending on your situation, the sort of container used etc. Using the leaves for a surface mulch, as Paspatur does, won't have this issue.

If you are organised enough to harvest before flowering, then the self-seeding shouldn't create difficulties either. I'm not that organised, so I grow the Bocking 14 plants in two rows along the edge of a field. They haven't travelled anywhere else in 10 years.

Not especially bothered about it being smelly, was expecting that, just didn't want to be unwittingly distributing comfrey seeds even further than they spread already.

We bought a nappy bucket with a lid and the evil brew is rotting away nicely.