I HATE COMFREY!!

What a transformation Spritz the leaf tones and flowers complement each other perfectly.Your hard work was well worth it. :) I do hope you will go carefully with the hoe when the comfrey springs up again ! I must say I have never had this stuff thank goodness lol
I really must have a look at astrantias I do like the flowers.

~you have done such a good job! I have other nasties including wild garlic but have never seen that in my garden~love the fuchsia!

I'm so glad to see that picture of comfrey Spritz. I dug up what I thought was 'the dreaded' and put it all in a bucket and covered it with water.
I do have the most foul smelling liquid which I have been adding to water to improve my plants. It's not comfrey though - does it matter to you think?

A job well done - and if you dig up more comfrey, then it's plenty new planting spaces for stuff you DO like!

Comfrey makes an excellent 'green' manure for us veggie gardeners. The books recomend growing it (obviously) and then digging it in, in the spring. They don't say anything about it keep coming back though?
Lovely blog B. hope you don't ache to much after all your hard work :~))

Thanks for the kind comments - I'll have to get more Comfrey out in the future, as not only does it spread, but there are so many other plants I'd like to grow, the space they take up could be used to MUCH better effect!

Oh dear, Ginellie - I suppose it depends on what it was? Could you post a photo and a question - someone will ID your plant for you!

Ian, I wouldn't dream of planting MORE of it! I am quite sure that there are other 'green manure' plants which would be just as effective and wouldn't drive you crackers for years afterwards.I know that Phacelia is one - more research needed for others, I think!

My right arm is a bit stiff this morning - back intact, thanks!

Well done Spritz. As always you have made a lovely display. I paticularly like the Fuschia and the Hydrangea.
A good green manure whis I esed to sow on my allotmets is Mustard Ian. That doesn't come back and from experience I think it did a good job for me.

Aw thanks Toto, I knew it was something like that, just couldn't remember the name.......:~)))

mmmm chocolate caught my full attention
it looks so much better already

x x x

Your earlier pics of E. rugosum "Chocolate" went into my faves when I was researching plants for our garden, Spritz! Glad to say that we did get our own. Your plants (all of them) look great!

For growing comfrey to use as a liquid feed, best to use a variety called Bocking 14, which was introduced in the 1950s by Lawrence Hills, founder of the Henry Doubleday Research Association (HDRA), now under the title Garden Organic. It doesn't spread like yours, Spritz. you seem to have been digging this stuff out for ever, poor you!

Have never grown comfrey (Symphitum officinale) myself, but would quite like to try the Bocking 14 strain to grow as a liquid feed. Only use I've come in contact with was in pill form. My wife had taken them in the past to help heal a fractured femur, and my brother-in-law took them to help with a stubborn ulnar fracture, which was refusing to heal properly ("Knitbone" is an old name for comfrey). They both said that it worked. :-)

Well done Barbara ;-)

Thanks, Sarah. :-)

great spritz, what a differance and love the little lizzard

It was quite funny to see his little tail waving about in the soil! I had to dig him out really carefully. He must have been a baby, don't you think?

its hard to tell size on pic but ive never seen one here, they move pretty quick to,probably a newt spritz, cute

He was only about 2" long, I suppose. Poor little thing!

Comfrey brings my arms out in a rash as well , we had some in our last garden , We have Mares tail here , it,s a nightmare , it,s coming under the fence from the field and coming up amongst the shrubs , nothing seems to kill it and like the comfrey the more you pull it the more it grows .
The nearest I can get to your photo of the Newt is a female Palmate Newt , I don,t suppose you had time to see if it had a dark stripe on the side of it,s head ?

No, Amy, I didn't look that carefully, as I was more concerned at getting him in a safe place! I don't think Henry would have picked him up - or worse - but he was sniffing at him, so off went my husband with the newt onto the stream bank, while I held Henry! I just hope the little creature survived.

I think he will have Barbara, they are quite resilient and have been known to survive a brush with the lawn mower.

He was Soooo tiny! I had to blow that photo up!

Why would he be in the soil? Was it just that I'd dug it over and he'd been hiding in the Comfrey and got buried? :-(

Oh the perils of comfrey. My niece had loads in her garden when she moved into her house and dug a piece up for me - it was supposed to be Bocking 14 so wouldn't seed around. I grew it on into a big plant and then it flowered - goodness me it had turned into a verbascum. Lol.

That bed is looking great, by the way! You do work hard in your garden.

I should think so Barbara, they live in grass etc. (as far as I know) and I wouldn't imagine him coming to any harm under your care :~))

Thanks, Wagger...and weren't you lucky!

Funnily enough, I have taken the day off gardening - well, the weather is GRUESOME - and I watched Harry Potter 3 instead...wish I had a magic wand to turn the dratted Comfrey into Verbascums, too!

Thanks for the comforting words, Ian... I'd like to think that little newt was safe. :-)

But I STILL don't have my comfrey, Spritz.(but only if it's Bocking 14). Horrible weather today - Harry Potter was definitely the best option. I've binged on old Gardener's World programmes.

(Whisper) I ate some Thornton's toffee as well! It was a good afternoon and Henry lay on the floor and enjoyed it too. :-)

PLEASE make sure it's the right kind...you really do not want this stuff! Why our predecessors planted it in so many places, I really haven't a clue. Its one saving grace is the pretty pink-ish bells in the spring.

I shall be digging more out when the weather improves! YAY!!! More planting space! More interesting plants to find!

THORNTON'S TOFFEE?? oops sorry was that to loud LOL
I can smell that angel food from 5 miles away.......in the rain :~)))

OUCH! Ian - that hurt my ear drums!

Sob, sob - all the toffeee has gone. I can't think where? Maybe it was Henry?

Oooops, I do get carried away when I smell it. Lol.
I've got (half) a box of All Gold in the kitchen, if I wait until someone goes to bed.............. :~)))))

My excuse was the 'orrible weather AND I was cold! In July!! What's yours?

I don't need one, everyone knows how greedy I can get :~)))

especially when it comes to chockies :~)))

Ooops! :-(

this looks very nice Spritz...much better than the comfrey... to be honest i have been quite lucky and not had this before...but looking at the pictures.. i have got something that does look suspicously like it coming up near my Pieris.... i wondered what it was and where it had come from... maybe a bird left it for me :-/ will go and remove it just incase....

there..the little sprig is now in the compost heap.

Best place for it, Angie! :-)

If its so good at getting everywhere, (if you know what I mean) Will it not take over your compost heap??

I cut off every piece of root, Ian, and they went into the incinerator. The leaves went into the compost bin. You're right - they would grow again in there, if I put the roots in. :-( It's a long job, but necessary.

hi folks
im new to this site, been looking around a bit this morning and it seems very friendly and informative.
Nice to meet you all.

I have a couple of gardens that i look after that have the dreaded Comfrey in, one garden has not had anything done to it for at least 30 years and im slowly getting it back into shape. Im digging up comfrey plants with roots that are 2" across. I know im not getting all the roots out but am hoping that the continual mowing ill be doing soon will finaly get rid of it. The other garden had a big patch of it in the drive, a part not driven over by cars. I sprayed it with industrial strength residual weedkiller and its still managing to grow! Whatever you do dont introduce this to your gardens! Find another green manure!

Hi Dawn, welcome to Grows on You..... i think your best option would be to dig out and keep digging as soon as you see it... you will irradicate it eventually.... and yes i did remove the root before composting the leaves ;-)

H Dawn - welcome from me as well, and my sympathy that you also have the dratted stuff to remove! You know how hard it is to get rid of! So do I!!!!!! :-(

Keep saying - with me - 'We Will Win' !!!!

I know Lawrence Hills of HDRA did all the work on comfrey years ago, but he was really seeing it as some kind of 'wonder food' as it grows so quickly (but mostly in the UK climate.)
I really think it is overrated and difficult to handle as a green manure and source for liquid food. The French all use 'purin d'orties', which is a liquid food made from nettles. OK you might get stung a bit but there are plenty of nettles around without having to plant them in your garden. And I'd much prefer eradicating nettles than trying to eradicate comfrey with those huge chunky roots, every bit of which will grow.

You are so right, and I STILL have to crawl under the Ribes to get more out!...I'm putting it off, though, for a while.

Hi again,
I'm more aclimatised to the site now. I need help with slugs and snails but don't want to use pellets. Can anyone recommend anything other than the beer traps. The little pests have just munched their way through my salad leaves!

Hallo Penkate - if you type 'Slugs and snails' into the 'search' box top right of the page, a number of questions with comments on this subject will come up. Have a browse through them...the ideas might help you. I do hope so.