I have a lot of comfrey… I planted a lot of it and am glad I did! My sister, Annie is the knowledge keeper of anything rare, garden interesting, or just plain weird. I was telling her about all my comfrey and she told me NOT to waste it. Meaning, use it as fertilizer. It is rivaled to be the BEST fertilizer there is. If you are anything like me, I want to know why? What makes it so great?
It’s hard to find a fertilizer with natural potassium. Enter—-> comfrey. It’s full of potassium (3 times that the amount in organic manure), an essential for veggies and other plants to grow and fruit to their full potential. Comfrey is also high in calcium, nitrogen, phosphorous, & potash. The perfect mix for fertilizing your garden organically!
I have Russian Comfrey, Bocking 14. This is a sterile plant. It doesn’t re-seed itself. Thank goodness! At the rate this stuff grows, I can certainly see how it could get out of control if it did re-seed itself. It is also one of the most potent comfrey plants in medicinal terms, which is why I grow it- to make healing salves. Who know it healed plants too!
First, I made comfrey tea. This is how:
Fill a five gallon bucket with comfrey leaves. Pack it tight. Then add water to cover the leaves. If you ferment anything, same concept (without the sugar). Place a lid on the bucket or piece of wood. I prefer the wood piece because I hate trying to get those tight lids off without spilling. Leave outside, in the sun for a week +. It creates this slimy, sludgy, bubbly green tea. Use this as a liquid fertilizer. 1/2 cup will make all the difference in the world for new and old plants 🙂 You can dilute as well if you don’t want it as potent.
The second use of my comfrey: Take the leaves and mulch all my raised beds with it. After pulling out veggie plants for the season and weeding, I placed the long, beautiful, elephant sized leaves in 5 of my 4 by 10 raised garden beds. This will act as a fertilizer for next spring and as a mulch as I laid it pretty thick. I then placed my tomato cages over the top so the wind didn’t rip off some of the newly placed leaves (it was windy that day).
There you have it! Your own organic, natural, potent fertilizer. And look, you re-cycled/re-used something 🙂 Head over to modernroots.org for more gardening, homesteading, & canning mayhem!
‘like’ on facebook at facebook.com/ModernRoots.org
