Comfrey tea for fertilizer?

NO, No, no... I know it isn't to be consumed as a tea. LOL

I was reading one of my herbal gardening books and found this interesting tidbit. I wondered if anyone had tried it? I think I will this coming year.

Hi Pod. I make a comfrey and stinging nettles tea and use it to fertilize my plants. It works great! I fill a big old pail about 1/3 of the way with comfrey and nettles. I then fill the pail with water. Cover. Let sit for a few days. When you take the top off the pail, stand back a little as the smell is not exactly of roses. Use the water to fertilize. I have also used fresh comfrey leaves as a mulch around plants. When it rains, the nutrients slowly leach into the ground.

LOL on the fragrance. I was thinking with all my pets that will drink from any puddle they can find, I need to be sure to cover it. Have you ever found the fresh comfrey leaves trying to take root? I questioned that comment in the book...

Can you do the same thing with borage?
I've never been able to get ahold of comfrey seeds here, but I can get rid of its lovely cousin borage. I've decided that I don't like it as an herb, so it would be nice if I could use it to make a fertilizer ... along with the nettles I also can't get rid of!!!

I think its' ( Borage ) main attribute in the garden is its' lovely blooms attracting pollinators to the various vegetables. Not sure on the fertilizer.

Yes, it IS pretty! Now, if it would just stay where I WANT it!

Potagere, I'm not sure about borage as a fertilizer either. It would be an interesting experiment though. And it does rather ramble about the garden at its own whim, doesn't it? I also have a white flowered borage that is a little more well behaved than its blue cousin. I eat the blossoms of both while in the garden.

I've never seen the white-flowered one. I planted the blue one just because it's so pretty, but now I have so much it would be nice to get some use from it. I'll have to do some experiments next year.

What would one use the borage for? Edible or medicinal or???

Supposed to add a "cucumber" flavour to salads.
Wikipedia says:

Potagere ~ may I ask if you planted yours for edible, medicinal or was it one of those plants that simply arrived uninvited?

I planted it mainly because I saw some in someone's garden and thought it was beautiful. I also thought that it would be a great way to get the taste of cucumbers into a green salad before and after cucumbers are in the garden. Turned out, I just didn't care for it. Didn't taste much like cucumber to me, and it's too hairy on the tongue. Still, it is lovely, it is one of the few flowers still blooming here (with the last of the dahlias, fuchsias and Rudbeckias), and I see that my neighbours are now growing it, too!

Fair warning ~ thank you! LOL on the neighbors.

I agree about the hairiness of the leaves - no way is that good eating, I don't care how young the leaf is! But, the flowers are lovely to eat. We eat the flowers fresh, in salads, in fruit salads, frozen in ice cubes and floated in drinks, candied, in a Pimm's cup (haven't done that for years, thanks for the reminder!). Some herbalists tincture borage leaf and flower as a remedy for cardiac problems. Medieval women would make a stirrup cup (given to their knight while he was on horseback and preparing to ride off to a battle) in which borage was steeped in wine. "I borage bring courage." So, may be an anxiolytic. Borage was an oft embroidered motif in Elizabethan clothing. I guess you needed all the courage you could get during those rough times. Somewhere, I have an embroidery I did with borage on it. I'll have to go find it and scan a pic.

I'd like to see a photo of your borage embroidery herbalbetty. I also enjoy the extra information you offer an the history and uses of herbs. What is Pimm's cup?

Jim, I like the borage plants that pop up everywhere in the garden when they are young and smaller, but they always seem to overgrow their space and fall over on other plants. I think of them as temporary plants and pull or cut them back when they become too large and floppy. That treatment seems to keep the self seeding to an acceptable rate.

I've used the comfrey leaves in the same manner as herbalbetty and just used them as a mulch around plants that seem to need a little boost and it does seem to help. I'm too lazy to make the tea unfortunately. The comfrey is also a big floppy plant for me and I'm happy to make use of the leaves I cut off to keep it in check.

I agree, sempervirens! They are so pretty when they are young, and I do the same as you. I think, however, that next year I will either make tea with them and the nettles, or at least use them as mulch and see if there is any effect.

Pimm's Cup is an English cocktail. In fact, I didn't know you could even buy Pimm's in the US, but I guess everything is international now, isn't it? Here's some info from Wikipedia:

Thanks Jim, that was quick! I'll have to look around for Pimm's and give it a try, the secret recipe makes it sound enticing. It does seem to be a summery, hot weather drink though, not quite the season for it now.

Actually, the first time I had it was in an ancient English coaching inn just outside of London, on a cold winter's night, in front of the fire! It was my first time in an English anything, and when asked what I would have to drink, Pimm's Cup was the 1st thing that popped into my head from all my reading as something quintessentially English! And, except for the strawberry, it really does sound Christmasy to me! In fact, now that I think of it, if we can entice our son over here for Christmas, perhaps that's what we'll have on Christmas Eve! I'm willing to bet that the big volunteer borage plant that has established itself in the otherwise empty cucumber bed (how appropriate is that?) will still be going strong then! If not, the impurists also say that: