COMFREY: 20/06/07
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COMFREY.
The first edition of R J Harris's Moon Gardening included what is probably the most comprehensive, most immediately-applicable instruction on comfrey propagation and usage to be found in the English-language horticultural literature. The instruction describes in detail how to bring this wild plant into the garden if it is not already present, and how R J Harris converts it at no financial cost into the safest, the most effective of plant foods. The instruction's inclusion, however, created a contradiction, and, because of this, it was decided that the manual's second edition could find no space for it.
The contradiction lay in the fact that comfrey plant feed is delivered to Mr Harris's vegetable plantlife at Tresillian in water and, hence, only at the times of watering. Water not delivered by the heavens is hardly ever required in the estate's kitchen garden, thanks to the unique design of Mr Harris's single-dug bed and deep-trench bed (see pages 123 to 132 of the second edition for an account of these bed types. They are fundamental to the success of vegetable production at Tresillian, and are one of the five constituents of moon gardening as practiced by R J Harris). Further, plantlife is so healthy at Tresillian -- again, thanks to the qualities of the host beds -- it never requires the nutrients that are conveyed by water-borne comfrey.
Only in Tresillian's greenhouses is comfrey feed applied regularly, for the (potted) tomato plants that receive it demand both it and the water that conveys it.
In point of fact, the wide range of tomato plants that the head gardener propogates annually under glass are not the only recipients of comfrey. It also does a vital job in the melon house, and in the houses where Tresillian estate's half-hardy flowering plantlets are developed from seed.
Since the vegetable garden that utilises the head gardener's special beds does not require to be watered -- and since the second edition explores only the open-air vegetable world (not referring to tomatoes) -- it was clear that comfrey propagation and application amounted to inappropriate editorial subject-matter, and that the second edition need refer to it only briefly.
Now three months old, the second edition has proved that although right conceptually, the editorial decision was wrong when viewed from the depths of the potting shed and over the lip of a steaming mug of tea. Dismay has been expressed by the manual's first-edition users at comfrey's exclusion, and requests have been received that the instruction be revived
Here it is, as it was presented in R J Harris's Moon Gardening's first edition. It is accompanied by the tips' and additional-information panels that were displayed in the first edition.
Growing comfrey and managing mature comfrey, beginning with bought, potted plantlets.
purchase four potted comfrey plantlets from a reliable source and in any month that they are available.
[Consideration: ideally, acquire them as early in the year as possible, to give them the longest possible initial growing period prior to their first Winter in the ground]
at the start of the moon's second quarter -- immediately prior to planting out the comfrey plantlets -- stand the pots in water, in the open and up to their brims, for at least two hours. Do so towards the end of the day.
[Consideration: this timing represents good practice when inserting any plant into the garden soil. The plant has the whole, cool night in front of it in which to recover from the trauma of transplantation. Moisture evaporation is at its least, so that, initially, there is maximum moisture in the soil. This is enhanced by the chosen moon time. This is when the moisture content of the waiting top soil is at its greatest volume, thanks to the maximum moisture concentration and maximum pressure within the top soil that is created by the fully-risen water table. See MOON, pages 209 to 214, R J Harris's Moon Gardening]
decide to insert the comfrey plantlets dotted haphazardly around the garden, or
decide to use well-lit, open, unoccupied or unusable corners in which they will not offer competition to existing developments, or
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FIRST OF FIVE PAGES OF COMFREY
