Today, a package arrived. It's our project that we've been anticipating.
We put in an order with Coe's Comfrey for ten root cuttings and ten crowns of Bocking 4 Comfrey.
I tracked the package with USPS, and was informed while I was at work that the package had arrived. I was in an excited rush to get home, and won't disclose my rate of travel in case the wife reads this.
My order:
- Ten root cuttings
- Ten crowns
What I received with bonuses and specials:
- Fourteen XXL root cuttings
- Fifteen crowns
- Five large cuttings
- Three audio CDs
- A DVD about forest gardening (food forests)
WOW
What an impressive delivery. Originally, I had it in my mind to order fifty plants (as cuttings and crowns). @burntoblog advised me to scale back, which made sense because I can propogate more from cuttings later. Glad I did, because I had a hard time planting 34! 50 plants would have been a lot. I would have found places for them, but I'd basically have a comfrey lawn.
Here's where we planted them:
Four in the north beds (4)
Two by the patio (6)
Two by the big plum tree (8)
NINE by the chicken run (17)
Four by the long south bed, one by the little plum tree, and two in the pecan nursery (24)
Seven in the south bed (31)
And three in the front flower bed that I didn't get a picture of (34)
I marked the locations with orange marker flags in order to keep an eye on them and monitor progress. So many plants got planted today, it's going to be hard to keep up with them all.
That's a lot of comfrey for now, but I'm sure I'll be needing more in the long run. As I plant more fruit trees, I'll put comfrey with them for some chop and drop fertilizer. That'll probably happen this next spring.
Nate, where the heck does all this vegetation fit in your focus points? Well, comfrey is a badass plant. It is a mass accumulator that digs deeeep in the ground for nutrients. Up to twelve feet deep, where nothing has ever been. Even some trees don't dig that deep. It has a godly NPK ratio of 1.8-0.5-5.3 That's better than manure and most compost, so it's going to be amazing for our soil here too.
Comfrey is also comprised of 22-35% protein, making it valuable as chicken fodder in moderation: it does contain some toxins that become dangerous at high levels of ingestion.
It's also the first herb in our herb garden. The crook in the line by the chicken run is the outline for where I want to eventually plant some herbs for the chickens.
So this plant fits PERFECTLY in two of our three focus areas: chickens and soil. I'm not sure it does much for water, but that's okay. As powerful as it is for the other two, that's a badass start to our planting.
Here's a pic of the root cuttings:
The short fat ones are the XXL from Coe's. They're about a half inch diameter and two inches long. The large cuttings are about the width of a pencil and three inches long. From everything I read, I may have been able to cut those in half, but that's far from necessary.
Here's a couple crowns:
I'm looking forward to seeing these plants mature and produce wonderful fertilizer fuel for our gardens. The roots seem to be really good quality, and if I ever need more comfrey than I can produce from these plants, I'll be getting it from Coe's. Quality product, good packing and shipping, GREAT bonuses and extras! What's not to love?
We'll, it's past my bedtime. I'm gonna hit the sack. Big day tomorrow: I want to measure out the back yard and make a detailed map of the entire space. That would be really cool!
Hope y'all have a good evening. As always, stay relevant.
Nate