Bocking 14.
No, the hot weather isn’t getting to me, it’s just the name of THE must-have plant for your GYO garden and I’ve been ever so slightly obsessed with it for twenty something years now since I watched ‘All Muck and Magic’ on Channel 4.
All Muck and Magic was the first real TV programme on organic gardening (after The Good Life, which doesn’t really count). Hosted by Garden Organic (the organisation formerly known as the HDRA) it aired in 1989 and seemed to capture the zeitgeist – we were staggering out of the fairly brutal eighties and expected to sail into a gentler, kinder nineties - all floaty white and eco.
And Bocking 14?
It’s a hybrid strain of comfrey, developed by Lawrence Hills (the founder of HDRA). Hills spent years researching the benefits of comfrey for organic gardening and wrote a weighty tome on the subject.
There are so many reasons why you need comfrey in general - and this strain of comfrey in particular – for your GYO activities:
- It is what Permaculture people call a dynamic accumulator, drawing minerals from deep beneath the soil (the roots can go down 30 feet) and storing them in the leaves, all ready for you to use;
- It contains high and perfectly balanced levels of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (NPK) - the essential nutrients for plant growth - together with many other trace elements. Its nutrient value is better than manure, compost and most liquid feeds;
- It makes a great compost accelerator – speeding up the process of breaking down your pile. For best results, scatter comfrey leaf cuttings throughout the compost heap rather than adding a thick layer when you build your compost pile;
- It makes a wonderful but exceedingly smelly liquid fertiliser (comfrey tea) which, once it’s fully ‘matured’ can be diluted 15:1 to make a great foliar spray for fruiting plants like tomatoes and beans;
- You can scatter comfrey leaves as a thick layer throughout your potato trenches just before planting. It fertilises the crop, can improve flavour and (I think) helps your potatoes resist diseases;
- Bees love it. Other insects do too, but our Bocking 14 patch is positively heaving with bumblebees right through the summer. We recently discovered we have a bumblebee nest by our raised beds, and I’m sure it’s partly because of the easy pickings our comfrey offers.
- Used as ‘cut and come again’ planting under permanent planting, it’s a perfect companion plant forfruiting bushes – suppressing weeds and providing on-the-spot, perfectly balanced fertiliser and mulch. We use it very successfully under our gooseberry and blackcurrant bushes;
- If your GYO aspirations extend to bacon and pork sausages, comfrey is fantastic livestock forage – especially for pigs and hens – as it is rich in minerals and proteins. (Please note that since we kept pigs, comfrey may have been deemed to be unsuitable for animal or human consumption so check this out before you buy your Gloucester Old Spots or plant an acre or two to Bocking 14);
- Its country name is 'knit bone'. It was used by herbalists to heal fractures. Several members of my family have used it homoeopathically to speed up the healing of broken bones.
Comfrey is a doddle to grow. It is easiest to plant a few sections of root when it is dormant – spring and autumn are fine, though we had more success establishing our patch in spring, simply because that autumn was so wet that the ground got waterlogged. It is possible to transplant when in leaf, but you will need to water well until it is established.
Most forms of comfrey self-seed like crazy. Because of its deep roots, once it’s growing, it’s yours to keep forever. Bocking 14 is sterile and won’t self-seed all over the best bits of your garden – that alone should persuade you to choose this above other varieties!
Be aware though that even a tiny bit of root will grow! We’ve never really managed to control it from the time the digger ‘levelled’ the garden and in the process mashed up our established comfrey bed and spread little bits of root all over the bit where the blackcurrants and gooseberries were to go.
Once established, you can harvest the leaves as many as 3-4 times throughout the growing season for a constant supply of nutrient rich, organic fertiliser for your patch.
Grow Your Own isn’t just about GYO Veggies or GYO Drugs – it’s about GYO fertiliser too!
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