Elleme's Garden
Comfrey
Genus: Symphytum.
Species: Symphytum officinale.
Another one of my 'it was here when i moved in and that's my excuse' plants. It's a tall pink-flowered one, coarse because of its rough leaves yet stately because of its height which hits 4ft, maybe more. A sort of poor man's foxglove. I let it stay behind my greenhouse for two reasons...
1. Bees love it when it's flowering, and frankly they need all the help they can get.
2. Good as a fast breaking down plant for the compost heap or for making vile smelling comfrey 'tea' as a fertiliser. The leaves are supposed to be good as a mulch for currant bushes and bad for pieris - although, not remembering where I read this, it could be some old wives' tale. I think it may have something to do with their potash content in both cases.
I don't let it self-seed though. I don't believe it is the sterile variety that some organic gardeners use, as I've had some stray seedlings on occasion. Now I dead-head it after flowering.
