Feed for food for free

The Somerset rural roads are a picture at the moment, lined with cow parsley and of course with the current lockdown situation they are a lot quieter. During my early morning cycle rides the recent weather has produced beautiful light which has displayed the verges at their best.

Despite their simplicity, the white umbels of the feathery parsley are delicate and beautiful, and along the verge as a swathe they look a little like a dusting of pure white snow.

However, as a bonus, if you look closely there are also some other delights often hidden in amongst the pure white stands...

The creamy bell flowers of comfrey, and as a special treat there can also be the more unusual pink variety.

However not only does the comfrey add to the beauty of the roadside verge, it also has some rather special qualities which makes it very attractive to us - it makes an excellent fertilizer. The plant has a deep taproot and large root system, and so pulls its nutrients from way down in the subsoil, where most other plants can't reach. Comfrey is high in just about every nutrient a plant needs, including the big three, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, and many trace elements. These nutrients are stored in its leaves. By harvesting the leaves and letting them break down, you can create a rich, dark, nutrient-rich plant food to use around the garden. It’s especially rich in potassium, making it the ideal feed to promote flowers and fruits in a range of plants, including tomatoes - and there lies the link...

These leaves are going to feed our tomatoes, with over 20+ different varieties and so a large number of plants we need to be planning ahead of how we are going to feed them all!!

With our ambition to grow so many different types and such a large number planning how to feed them in these challenging times is important. So we set to harvesting comfrey leaves, mainly off our own land, but topped up from the roadside locally.

All harvested, a stripping we did go and leaves were separated from the stalks on a commercial scale!

Stems and flowers not wasted and used on the compost heap, providing both valuable structure and nutrients.

The leaves and all the goodness were put into two blue barrels, one which we leave to decompose without any addition and so to release their liquid neat.

The other we added water to - and with taps in the barrels we are ready to draw off after 4 weeks, to dilute appropriately and feed to our tommies - feed for food for free - lovely!