Saturday 15 June 2013

Compost & Comfrey?

There's not much to show in my garden at the moment, don't get me wrong everything is growing rampant but it's that time of year when all I seem to be doing is weeding and tidying every day - oh and feeding every bird in Caithness judging by how much food they're getting through.

Today I tackled the compost heap. Remember the bins I made out of scrap wood a few months ago, well I've been ignoring the compost growing in them because it just never seems to do anything and I was getting a bit cheesed off with it - in fact the last lot of stuff I threw on it even included plastic tags such was my 'the thing doesn't work anyway' attitude.
This morning at 6am I sat and watched my 2 favourite gardening programmes and the first one 'Beechgrove garden' had a snippet about garden compost which got me to thinking I really needed to get my act together and get the hang of getting it right - my garden is so in need of as much as I can produce.
So I watched and listened as Jim McColl  went through all the stuff you can compost as well as the stuff you can't and then he went onto the task of turning it, that is when it dawned on me that I'm still not turning the blinking thing and that's probably why it's not rotting - I'm a lazy gardener have I ever mentioned that?
So one of my tasks today was to turn the heap. Here's the unturned heap - there's actually alot more there than it looks


Unrotted huh! I know it doesn't look much but I still have a tendency to throw stuff that should be composted, plus I lose interest in doing it because it never seems to rot.

Then I turned it and discovered that it was actually rotting but I never see this because I never interact with it - I just leave it and add to it so it never looks rotted.



I've started a new bay now, this one will just be turned regular and covered until it's ready.

The next programme I watched this morning was 'Gardeners world', it's not the same since Geoff Hamilton died and then Alan Titchmarsh leaving but Monty Don is the perfect presenter in my book - I just wish there was more gardening and less gallavanting to be honest.
However, Monty touched on another subject today that I've always wanted to try - Comfrey liquid for feeding plants. I regularly have Seaweed tea to hand but I didn't think I had any comfrey growing anywhere to try comfrey tea. The laugh of that is that I didn't even know what Comfrey looked like so how do I know if I have any - again too lazy to check.
Anyways Monty cut some of his Comfrey plant and it suddenly looked familiar, I'm sure I have some of that growing on the land, so I took a couple of pictures.

Is this Comfrey people?
If it is then not only do I have some growing but I have heeeeeeaps of the stuff - how did I ever miss it! Assuming it is Comfrey of course?


I'm keeping my fingers crossed that someone can tell me it is indeed Comfrey.

The smell in the polytunnel is getting more gorgeous by the day, not only are the Lilys and Pinks in flower now but the Sweetpea is too - what an awesome collection.



I'm not sure what the White one is called. I usually keep all the names somewhere safe but for some reason I haven't with the Pinks. They were a special offer from Gardeners World magazine last year where I just paid p&p for a fair few different ones but I can't for the life of me find where I recorded the names.

11 comments:

  1. Yes that is definitely comfrey.

    Is the pink Gran's favourite? They smell gorgeous don't they?

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    1. Thank you Sue, I'm pleased as punch that you can confirm they're comfrey. I'm going to make that Comfrey tea tomorrow :)

      Yes one of the Pinks is 'Grans favourite'. One is 'Doris' but I'm not sure about the White one - it may be 'Haytor'?
      They do indeed smell glorious Sue and with this heat the polytunnel is full of the smell :)

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  2. I have thought about keeping a pot of comfrey...love the reds and pinks of that bouquet.

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    1. You should definitely grow some Donna, I'm amazed how much I have without realising it lol. It's really rampant as well. I'll be making that comfrey tea tomorrow and have found another beneficial plant to add to the compost heap :)

      Thanks for popping by

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  3. I can almost smell those sweet peas from here, how lovely, mine are only 3inches high and still in the greenhouse.

    I watched Gardener's World and dashed straight out the next day and made a batch of nettle fertilizer!!

    I have green composting bins and nothing ever composts in those either! Og course I NEVER turn it!!!

    The weeds are a right pain, I'm like you, never stop weeding, I can't get much else done!!!xxxx

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    1. Your sweetpea will soon catch up snowbird and just imagine how gorgeous they are going to smell. Mine are only that size because they're in rich earth in the tunnel, the outdoor ones are still tiddlers.
      How did that nettle soup go? You'll have to let me know if you think it works.
      You must turn that bin lmao. You'll be suprised just how much has rotted underneath - boring job but one I'll try to do more often in future.
      Thank you for stopping by

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  4. I concur about the Comfrey. The Chicago Botanic Garden uses a low variety of Comfrey as an underplanting for crabapple trees - they bloom at the same time. Just stunning.

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    1. I had a mosey on over to CBG on the internet after your comment. Oh my, what a wonderful looking place, I so wish we had something like that close to here. So much bird life there too.

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  5. Keep a lid on your comfrey tea - Monty D wasn't kidding when he said it stinks!! I have one pot of comfrey growing in my veg patch and use the leaves to line bean and potato trenches. If I could only get the padlock off my compost bin (put there to stop people using it as a litter bin), I'd be cutting the leaves to add to the compost too! I rather like the idea of nettle tea and may go foraging for some on Hampstead Heath this weekend.

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    1. I made some today Caro but didn't put a lid on it :( Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow. lol.
      I have a bucket of seaweed tea that I'm using at the moment but everytime I take the lid off to get some the smell is just rancid - like rotting something or other. Wonder if comfrey smells worse? Hmmmm I think I'll do a smell test lol.
      Enjoy your forage along Hampstead Heath, we're certainly getting the weather for it - finally!
      Thank you for popping by

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  6. Hats off to you!! you did a good job!! Those flowers look beautiful!! :)Keep blogging!
    garden gnomes

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