Permaculture Plants - Comfrey, the Queen of Plants

Comfrey (Symphytum x uplandicum)

I have planted lots of comfrey in the garden for many reasons. Perhaps the most important one is that it fulfills one of the three ecological gardening principles - succession. Except for the Cut Flower bed, all of the beds in the Backyard Project were new with bare soil. By using comfrey as a first coloniser/pioneer plant it helps prepare the soil for other plants, soil organisms and insects. It starts a progression of life.

Comfrey is an insectary plant in that the flowers attract bees to the garden. Slugs devour the leaves while they work to break down organic matter in the soil. The slugs are a food magnet for birds, frogs, snakes and many other creatures needed in a garden.

I put my shoe beside a leaf to show you how big the comfrey leaves are getting. The plant has a long soil-busting taproot capable of bringing lots of minerals up to the surface. As the soft decaying leaves quickly decompose these minerals are released and made accessible to other plants.

The large leaves cover the soil holding in moisture while providing a cool home for the slugs and many other soil critters.

This is the 'mother bed' under a big leaf maple but it is not working to plan. It is dry under the tree, is not irrigated and the hose doesn't reach this far so I don't expect them to thrive over the summer.

The plants that are thriving and have grown the biggest leaves are in locations that correspond with the sunniest places I found when I did the 'Sun/Shade' analysis map.

Here is the comfrey growing along the bottom edge of the Leaf hugelkultur bed. The leaves are small and the plants are reaching towards the sunny south. But they are still doing a good job building up the soil by making mulch.

Whenever I plant plants I don't need to put a compost soil in the hole first. My sister showed me how to pick a few comfrey leaves, crunch them up and put them in the bottom of the hole before putting the plant on top. It is a mineral boost for the new plant.

I make up a herb tea for the plants by putting comfrey, nettle and horsetail in a big tub of water and leaving it until it has decayed. The plants and soil love this tonic.

I harvest the comfrey three times over the spring and summer laying it on the soil as fertiliser. At the end of August, I leave the plant to grow leaves to protect itself over the winter. 

I haven't even touched on the medicinal or culinary uses of comfrey - I'll save that for another post.

Comfrey well deserves its title 'Queen of Plants' in the permaculture garden.

The happy result of what I thought was a mistake.

A few years ago I planted some irises near the edge of the pond. During the winter rains, the pond water level rose and covered the irises. I thought that was the end of them because they would rot. But no, each spring they grow back out of the pond mud and put on a magnificent show.

Studio Construction - A Roof

Ooh, another delivery truck with a load.

And the guys are wearing special equipment.

The load is going up on to the roof.

At the same time, Alex, owner of  Nortek Exteriors arrived on site to measure the exterior walls. He has the contract to clad the building.

Mauricio Reyes, the owner of Proline Roofing and Gutters, got the contract to put on the roof.

We decided on an SBS Torch-on roof. Here is the first layer being nailed in place.

Torch-on is suited to the low angled roof, has a long life and is low to no maintenance. All big pluses.

The 2nd layer is melted on with a gas flame - see the flame in the middle of the above image.

Initially, I had wanted a living roof to make it blend into the forest. We will see a lot of the roof from the upstairs level of the house. From my research on living/green roofs, I noticed most of them were planted in grasses or succulents. Grasses grow in a different ecology than rain forest and succulents require a much warmer climate. Planting either of these types of plants would require getting up on the roof to do maintenance replacing dead plants and lots of weeding. It would be too artificial, expensive, time-consuming and wouldn't fit with the native ecology. So no grass roof.

The top layer of Torch-on has small chips of stone stuck into it. If the roof is left undisturbed over time it will become colonised with mosses and lichens without any planting. The needles continually falling from the evergreens, the stone chips and the winter rains supply the food for these plants. The spores would come from the mosses and lichens growing on the surrounding trees and forest floor. No extra layers of roofing material are needed so the roof is kept lightweight, unlike the many layers required by grass roofs. I will be looking to see if the roof is shaded enough for the western sword fern (Polystichum munitum) to grow up there. We have so many of them in the forest some of their spores must get up onto the roof. 

The plan is to leave it alone and let natural biological processes of succession happen. My kind of roof. And it will look great.

The blue tarps have gone making the building disappear a little bit more into the forest.

In a cool climate, the dark colour has a warming effect on the inside of the building.

We considered solar panels because the roof faces south/ south-west but a bit of research suggested it wouldn't be a wise investment. We have long winter days and many overcast days in spring and fall. The building is in under the tree canopy. The solar panels wouldn't function on enough days to justify them.

Now the building is watertight it is time to start drying it out. 2 de-dehumidifiers and a small heater on low are put to work to take water out of the wood. Ron has a moisture probe and is regularly testing the moisture levels in the wood. The inside has to be dry enough before the next stage - insulation.

Books Books Books

As with all modules of work in this BA(Hons) Embroidered Textiles programme, there is lots of reading.
I do like having to read because there is no guilt in settling down with a book and looking up to see most of the day has passed, which does tend to happen to me when I get hooked on a good one.
There have been several books this semester that have been most influential in my work.
I devoured Nalini Nadkarni's book on trees.
Even though she is a scientist and professor with a doctorate in tropical canopies, this book is very personal about her own connection with trees and her family life, which makes it easy to relate to.
It is a great example of someone with the ability to link art, science and life.

This book has lots of provocative ideas about what we need to do to survive and thrive on the planet for the next millenia.
It is a book of essays written by experts. There are lots of statistics to back up their arguments and I found it very readable.
However, there is a big problem with the case they present.
Unlike Nalini's approach where she covered all the bases in a loving dissertation on trees, this book thinks it did the same by looking at the role of governments, education, religion, media etc in bringing about a global shift from being a consumer society to sustainable one BUT it completely and totally left out the role of the artist and art as an agent of change.
Art history shows time and time again how art has led the way with what is new in ways of thinking and viewing and doing.
I checked the index, there is no mention of 'art', 'artist,' 'beauty' ... so its not a balanced view.
Makes me wonder what else they left out.

These 2 books have been great references to dip into while I am developing my ideas.
For example, when I am contemplating using a symbol in my work I check it out in one of these books to find out the history and multiple meanings it might have. I then follow these leads with web searches.

Phew, I have been wordy this post.
It is probably because all I have been doing this past week is pecking at my key board putting together 2 art proposals - Assignment C.