Comfrey is such a fabulous tonic for the garden – brim full of minerals and the answer to the gardener who doesn’t live near seaweed.
First up collect a bucket full of comfrey. Use a bucket with holes in the bottom. Feel free to add any other seasonal lush, green herbs – dandelion, stinging nettle, chamomile, lemon balm, yarrow, echinacea, borage, tansy, buckwheat … you get the idea.
Sit the holey bucket inside an un-holey bucket, like a steamer inside a pot. The bottom bucket collects the liquid as the herbs rot down and drip.
Put a weight like stones or bricks on the herbs. Unless you are in some kind of training, get your bucket in place before putting all the load on. Store it in warm shade.
Cover it to keep the bugs out. This hessian hat works really well.
And thats it!
Leave it alone to brew for about 6 weeks. You’ll be stoked to know this is completely pong-free.
It’s ready when 99% of the raw ingredients have turned to black sludge and there’s a lovely puddle of black goodness in the bottom. From this 30litre tub of herbs I get about 2 – 3 litres of feed.
Dollop the rotten herbs around some deserving, fruit-producing plants. This lot has gone under my January planted tomatoes.
Get the best out of your concentrate by using it all up in one go, as soon as its ready. If you need to wait a bit, put a board on top and tuck it into the shade.
Dilute 1:10 or 1:20 – somewhere in that range, in a back pack sprayer or a watering can. Add a bit of extra power with EM if you’ve got it. Spray/ pour all over the soil and foliage. What a monthly tonic!