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Comfrey

InglezinhoInglezinho Posts: 568
in Plants
For many years now I have grown comfrey and made liquid feed from it. 
We have just moved to a new house with a smaller garden and I want to find an alternative. 1. Because it is not very pretty and 2. neither my wife nor I like the smell !
Any suggestions, I am told coffee and tea grounds are pretty good.
Everyone likes butterflies. Nobody likes caterpillars.

Posts

  • Blue OnionBlue Onion Posts: 2,995
    Nettles gathered from somewhere?  Not sure the rules about gathering them from a footpath, but as they strim them down several times a year you are probably alright.  Maybe a neighbor with a pile down at the back of the garden they would love pulled up?  

    I don't think there is much 'goodness' in coffee grounds or tea, except for the human!  A tea made from manure?  Probably depends on the animal as to the quality.  
    Utah, USA.
  • herbaceousherbaceous Posts: 2,318
    I grow the Bocking 14 (so no self seeding) next to the compost bins so they are handy. I was told by the RHS that tea leaves make a good soil improver as they are sterilised and most of the tannin etc. has been leached from them. I imagine it would be the same with coffee grounds.
    "The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."  Sir Terry Pratchett
  • TenNTenN Posts: 184
    I read a thing by James Wong about coffee grounds a few years back and he suggested that caffeine suppresses growth in other plants. 
  • Alan Clark2 in LiverpoolAlan Clark2 in Liverpool Posts: 2,190
    I have never seen the point of growing comfrey to make liquid feed. Why not buy liquid fertiliser and grow something nice instead?
  • josusa47josusa47 Posts: 3,530
    Alan Clark2 in Liverpool said:
    I have never seen the point of growing comfrey to make liquid feed. Why not buy liquid fertiliser and grow something nice instead?
    What's the point of growing tomatoes when you can buy them?  Some of just enjoy being that little bit closer to self-sufficiency.  Also comfrey is useful to pollinators.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    I have yet to find liquid tomato feed here @Alan Clark2 in Liverpool and Jim on Beechgrove tested comfrey feed against his usual commercial brand and didn't believe the results so he did it again the following year and converted to comfrey as the better feed.

    It's a great ground cover in awkward spots and it's great for pollinators and, in this garden, I'm planning a whole long  bed of it at the back of the potager which is too dry for crops.  I shall also be trying the pressing technique shown by that Irish gardener on GW a few weeks ago.  No smell!
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • josusa47josusa47 Posts: 3,530
    Obelixx said:
     I shall also be trying the pressing technique shown by that Irish gardener on GW a few weeks ago.  No smell!

    I find it's less smelly if you strain out the rotting leaves after a few weeks.  Of course, you have to put up with the smell when you do it, but the strained liquid doesn't seem to smell as bad.

  • Blue OnionBlue Onion Posts: 2,995
    What about using it as a mulch?  Does that have similar effects?  Obviously not as quick, but maybe in the following season once rotted down?  
    Utah, USA.
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