comfrey

A couple of years ago, I purchased some comfrey plants from the MIT plant nursery in Manukau.  The MIT plant nursery sells work carried out by students during their horticulture course and it always amazes me how talented they are.  For just $2, I got myself eight potted comfrey plants at their end of year sale.  For a long time, I was scared to plant them as I had heard that comfrey is an invasive herb, so I kept them in pots in our patio, not sure what to do.  Then I attended a seminar on growing fruit trees for city gardens run by Kings Plant Barn in Aotea Square.  The presenter, Billy Aitkin, who I have gotten to know well over the years suggested planting comfrey around one of our fruit trees at first, to see if I liked it before doing the same around the rest of them.  I planted our comfrey plants around our “Unique” feijoa tree and it has done really well.  It has been there for a few years now and looks so pretty in spring, with its lavender flowers which attract the bees.

I thought I would put together some facts about comfrey for those of you interested in its medicinal and other properties
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• Comfrey will grow easily in most soils
• Comfrey contains high levels of all the essential nutrients for plant growth: Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (NPK), together with many other trace elements
• It has a very deep tap root which can travel down three metres, making it hard to get rid of once established so think carefully before you plant it!
• Comfrey can tend to become invasive, so make sure you plant it in an area where you don’t mind it growing
• It grows very easily by cutting
• When cutting comfrey it is advisable to use gloves as the hairs on the stems can irritate skin
• Comfrey can be used as a mulch
• It can also be used as a liquid fertiliser by diluting rotted leaves with water before pouring over plants in the garden
• Comfrey leaves can be used to line trenches prior to planting potatoes, to protect against the potato worm
• The leaves can be added to compost
• Comfrey can be used as a soil conditioner.  The wilted leaves can be dug into ground that is being prepared for a new crop and will break down to give an excellent feed.