More About Growing Russian Comfrey (Bocking 14)

Comfrey Article

Sometime back I wrote a little piece on comfrey for the site and it was mentioned to me last week. Basically they wanted to know more so I’ve expanded the article and linked through to it from the original. Being a pdf file, it is easy to print out as well.

You can find it here

Down to the plot for an hour late this afternoon. Just humping leaves and chippings down to plot 5. It’s strange with chippings. Where they are mixed with a lot of green leaves, they almost seem to burn in the pile, becoming covered with a fine grey ash. I suppose they are actually burning, but slowly and without flame.

The leaves are pretty wet, so very heavy. I’m dreading the bit where I need to fasten the front of the cage and heave them over the top to fill it. I can feel the sciatica coming on. Talking of sciatica, my wife found out an electric heat pad – bit like a mini electric blanket – for me. It works a treat.

Compost

I took some compost material down with me as well. We keep a pedal bin in the kitchen for vegetable waste, teabags, eggshells etc. They’re all grist to the mill. We also shred any waste paper from the office and old bank statements etc. They all get composted as do old egg boxes and any plain cardboard. I don’t try and compost glossy coloured paper or board, though,

Because of the time of year, I’m using a ‘Dalek’ bin on the plot as it holds the heat well. The paper should help the carbon / nitrogen balance which is critical for good compost.