find a repeated industrial plant that is both useful and beautiful is such a goody . An herb that ’s been in purpose for as long as comfrey — since 400 B.C.—is bind to have multiple uses . It would n’t have been continually cultivated for so long otherwise .
Comfrey is in the same class asborageand forget - me - nots . It portion out similar - looking white to blue - regal blossoms and leave cover in boisterous hairs . Comfrey is various , and you credibly screw it for its use in holistic medicament . Its interior manipulation is a bit controversial , as theU.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued warningsabout comfrey ’s pyrrolizidine alkaloid content , which can cause liver terms at high doses , but you ’ll find herbalist recommending its limited consumption as a tea leaf as well as in topical applications .
outdoors of traditional medicines , comfrey is a useful herbaceous plant for the farm , too . It grows quickly in industrial plant hardiness zones 3 through 9 and produces leaves from outflow through your first freezing , so you have a quick comfrey supply for much of the yr . Here ’s how you’re able to put its abundant supplying to use on your farm .
1. Comfrey Mulch
Comfrey has tuberous roots that journey deep into the soil , access nutrients that many other industrial plant ’ roots can not . It pulls these nutrients — include nitrogen , potassium , phosphorus and Ca — into its leaf . As the cut leaves of comfrey decompose , these nutrients stay in the upper level of the ground , have them more accessible to other industrial plant .
Make It Happen
Cut comfrey leaves throughout the year , and place the whole leaf over your planting seam . Comfrey leaves can grow quite heavy , and in summation to helping add nutrients to your soil when used as mulch , will help to shade out smoke seeds .
Also Know
Comfrey make a good chop - and - drop curtain plant . you’re able to bring down off parting throughout the year and mulch around a tree or other plants in the area . The leave of absence will grow back quickly , but be aware that it ’s only the leaves you ’re using . Comfrey ascendent are extremely fertile , and stem bit will take handgrip and start growing — comfrey is hard to get rid of once it roots .
2. Comfrey Tea
This is n’t the Camellia sinensis that nourishes you ; it ’s the tea leaf that nourishes your garden , just likecompost tea leaf .
snub comfrey provide from your plant , hack them , and rob them in water for several weeks , until you have a thick , sullen liquid state . ThePermaculture Research Instituterecommends diluting your tea with water 12:1 to 15:1 before applying it to your garden . Comfrey tea is especially full for fruiting crop and seed - fill up crops , according to theNational Center for Appropriate Technology .
3. Compost Activator
All of the atomic number 7 held in comfrey ’s leaves can facilitate jump-start - start the decomposition process by feeding the microbe in your compost pile .
4. Make It Happen
Add just - cut healing herb leaves to your compost big bucks when your spile ’s carbon copy - to - nitrogen ratio is too C - heavy . Turn the stilt to integrate the comfrey . However , if your compost pile is already atomic number 7 - heavy , add a high - nitrogen stuff like comfrey will only throw off the carbon : nitrogen ratio further and slow down the decomposition process .
5. Weed Inhibitor
Planted in a circle , comfrey will keep spreading weed and smoke from entering .
industrial plant comfrey in a border around a Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree — at the tabu edge of the tree ’s perimeter or dribble ancestry , according toBastyr University — to prevent grass and weeds from growing around the tree diagram torso .
Comfrey grows quickly and can farm large — about 3- to 4 - feet tall and around — so be certain to establish these in an area where you do not plan to grow other thing .
6. Livestock Feed
You would n’t intend animate being would not like to eat up healing herb because of the tiny hairs on comfrey leave , but sheep , pigs and chickens do n’t mind . Even hare and cattle will eat comfrey when it ’s wilted or dried as hay , agree to the University of Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station .
To feed fresh , cut comfrey pull up stakes from the industrial plant right before feed . Bos taurus will also eat sweet comfrey leaves when they ’re chopped . To make hay , rationalise comfrey leaves from the plant life and dry out for at least three days before storing them . Do n’t think of this hay as in hay bales — this is n’t typically a craw you ’ll bring about in an sphere as large as a hay field — rather large , dried leaves of forage .
Comfrey has a high wet content—85 to 90 per centum compare to alfalfa ’s 75 to 80 percent — so be sure it ’s thoroughly dried before storage so it does n’t moulding . Comfrey should be used as part of balanced nutritional plan for animals , not as the lonesome informant of sustenance for any animal .
Before you go and fill up your garden with comfrey , realize that it grows quickly and is unmanageable to get free of once it establishes . Be judicious in choosing your planting locations , and appreciate comfrey for all it ’s worth .
