Recipes & Tips

Comfrey is a real helper in the yard and garden. First, it's pretty if you like big, cottage-y plants. The flowers are colorful. Their long taproot pulls nutrients from deep underground and this makes the whole plant useful. Chop the leaves for mulch.  Or toss them into the hole when planting seedlings. Just make sure you don't get any stem bits in the hole or you'll have more comfrey! You can use fresh cuttings to make comfrey tea, a smelly brew that helps bring back stressed plants and even inoculates them against some diseases. Layer fresh stems and leaves into your compost pile as a heat activator. My batch composters are already full by the time comfrey gets big enough to use, so I just throw in whole branches to give it a heat boost.

I use a 4X8 inch quilter's ruler when planting seeds. It digs a nice clean trench and then I leave it in place to measure how far apart my seeds are going, if I don't want to eyeball. Drop the seeds in and then smooth the soil with the side of the ruler.

We all know handpicking is the way to combat Japanese and lily leaf beetles. But I can't stand to touch them! So I knock them off with a cereal spoon. Japanese beetles go into a can of soapy water. Lily leaf beetles just go into a small bowl where I crush them with the back of the spoon. I don't touch slugs either. I lure them into a dish of beer where they drown, then I can fling them away.