THIRD OF FIVE PAGES OF COMFREY
water the plantlets' sites thoroughly. Do so immediately after the total installation is complete. Use a can with a medium rose
leave the plantlets to develop for the first two years of the their lives without harvesting their leaves and stems. Permit their root systems to become established by these means. Pluck off any blossom that develops during this initial period, to encourage maximum stem/leaf/root development
permit the comfrey's top growth to die down and to return to the soil at the end of year one and of year two
harvest for stock-making for the first time in year three. Cut at ground level. Use garden shears
harvest annually thereafter as soon as the leaves and stems are sufficiently developed for stock making or for adding to the compost bin or heap or to the trench that awaits development into a deep-trench bed
feed each plant with liquid manure when its leaves begin to appear at the beginning of the growing season, for hastened leaf/stem development. Repeat monthly after that, ideally during the evening at the start of the moon's fourth quarter.
[Considerations: 1 -- make the liquid manure by mixing a cup or two of proprietary dried manure into a standard garden bucket filled with water. Allow the mixture to rest for an hour or two before use, to ensure the total absorption of the dried manure into the water; 2 -- comfrey prefers poultry manure. 6X, being the dried product of chicken runs, is ideal for this purpose (see SUPPLIERS in R J Harris's Moon Gardening); 3 -- before applying the liquid manure, water the plants' sites well. Pre-water and feed in the cool of the end of the day; 4 -- see MOON in R J Harris's Moon Gardening for an explanation of the influence of the satellite planet upon applying feeds to the top soil]
apply comfrey-strengthened water manually each time the plants are watered during and as from year four of the plants' lives. Do so at the start of the moon's fourth quarter. Use a can with a medium rose. Produce the comfrey water in the ratio of one part of comfrey stock to eighty parts of water. See below for stock-making instructions.
[Considerations: 1 -- during year four the comfrey becomes suitable, for the first time, for the making of somfrey stock; 2 -- watering and feeding in this way is not moon-oriented. "Watering comfrey," comments R J Harris, "is an on-going process"]
apply comfrey-strengthened water manually each time the plants are watered during and as from year four of the plants' lives and when the watering is done via a seep hose. Do so at the start of the moon's fourth quarter. Use a can with a medium rose. Produce the comfrey water in the ratio of one part of comfrey stock to forty parts of water. See below for stock-making instructions
cut the plants at ground level in October of year three, and each October thereafter. Transfer the season-weary leaves and stems to the compost bin or heap or to the trench that waits completion as a deep-trench bed.
[Consideration: in the R J Harris-style garden or allotment at least one trench always awaits completion as a deep-trench bed. See the crop-rotation discussions in the opening pages of R J Harris's Moon Gardening]
de-weed around the cut-down plants. Consign the annual weeds, in their totality, to a waiting deep-trench-bed trench or compost bin (but note in R J Harris's Moon Gardening the head gardener's convictions about home-made garden compost, which he refuses to have in any garden or allotment that he manages). Remove the perennial weeds from site, in accordance with Mr Harris's views on waste-vegetable compost, and destroy them.
Growing comfrey and managing mature
comfrey, beginning with root cuttings.
de-pot and insert into the ground two purchased comfrey plantlets. Bring them to the third season of their adulthood as described above in Growing comfrey and managing mature comfrey, beginning with bought, potted plantlets
permit them to grow to full height and to bear full blossom in their third season until they reach life's end in October or November. Do not harvest their leaves and stems at any stage in the third season
cut their leaves and stems at ground level at the end of the third year, using garden shears. Do not inflict damage by ripping the vegetable matter from the parent plants by hand (and, at the same time, do not expose the skin of the hands to the quite sharp, hairlike developments on the plants' stems and the backs of the leaves). Transfer the harvested top growth to the compost bin or heap or the trench that awaits development into a dep-trench bed
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THIRD OF FIVE PAGES OF COMFREY
