Comfrey is a plant which gets organic growers very excited. It grows back and flowers after the plant is cut back to the ground, maybe three or four times a year between February and about November. It has deep tap roots which return leached nutrients from inaccessible depths to the grower in the form of leaf material. These leaves contain high levels of many beneficial elements, especially potassium and nitrogen. Both elements are key nutrients, potassium helps plants to fruit (eg tomatoes) and nitrogen boosts leave growth (eg cabbage).
However comfrey is far more than a delivery system for kitchen garden fertility requirements. Its flowers are very popular with bees, especially bumble bees. In spite of the temptation to remove the leaves to encourage each comfrey plant to re-sprout from the ground, I held off when I saw the bee activity the other day as I was planting bedding plants in the front garden beside the comfrey bed. What the bees want, the bees get. The cutting of the comfrey can wait until the flowers are finished. The leaves will be then stuffed in a barrel. This will be topped up with water and left for a few weeks to soak and stew. A 1:10 ratio of this comfrey liquid diluted in water will then feed the fruit and vegetables as they are watered by watering cans.
Trevor is co-founder and was, until his appointment to Government, a board member of Sonairte, the Irish National Ecology Centre, near Julianstown, County Meath which is an Agricultural Training and Visitor centre with a 2.2 acre walled organic garden. He is also a member of Amnesty International, the Dublin Food Co-op, the Irish Organic Farmers’ and Growers’ Association, Organic Trust and a former member of Macra na Feirme. A former teacher and fluent Irish speaker, he relaxes by reading, walking and playing music. His favourite form of relaxation is tending to his prolific organic garden at home in Balbriggan, North County Dublin, an area known by many as Fingal.
