Home made fertilisers.

Today I filled a pillowcase with comfrey and put it in a dustbin of water to start some comfrey tea. Then I decided that there is so much bindweed around at the moment it would be criminal to waste it. I wasn't able to dig it up at the roots so just bundled all the stems into a bucket, put a brick on top and filled with water. Never tried it before, so any hints welcome! What do you make?

Tags: Comfrey, bindweed, fertiliser, home, made, tea

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Permalink Reply by Rob Duffin on June 23, 2011 at 8:09

I do the comfrey tea one too - using the brick adn bucket method. Not forgetting to cover it up too. Oh and a peg for my nose when I come to use it ;>)

I've heard about the bindweed one before too, but never used it. Let me know how that works as I have a never ending supply :>(

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Permalink Reply by elaine rickett on June 23, 2011 at 18:54

Comfrey and nettle in a large bucket filled to the top with water diluted when ready for use. Stinks the place out so it must be doing some good.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah Rideout on June 23, 2011 at 19:30

Have been doing the bindweed and couch grass like this for some time, the smell is not much better but because the roots go down so far the resulting sludge is full of trace elements that the bindweed has drawn up.

thank you for reminding me to go and drain off some liquid as it will be getting very diluted with all this rain! Have a tap on an old barrel so its easy to get at.

Our Town Ranger (I have to force myself to not say "High Ho Silver!) likes to come and moan about the number of people that pull up weeds and cart them off site -as he says its like throwing away the next few years soil - and even with pernicious weeds he's right. The more you take to the dump the more you'll have to buy compost in.

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Permalink Reply by Colin Robinson on June 23, 2011 at 19:52

Like the other posters I try and use everything I can rather than putting it in the green waste bin. All perennial weeds are either soaked in large drums to make a liquid feed then composted or simply stuffed into plastic sacks and left to rot down. Do remember to gather them before they set seed as the seed has a very strong survival instinct!!

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Permalink Reply by Bobby on June 23, 2011 at 20:34

I have to confess I don't do anything like this - in a small urban garden the idea of stinking vats isn't so attractive!

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Permalink Reply by Jan Willetts on June 23, 2011 at 20:40

Checked the comfrey arrangement tonight, whiffy already!. Have covered up the bindweed with a spare dustbin lid too, my neighbours will think the drains are blocked! I love things for free.

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Permalink Reply by Jade Hwang on June 24, 2011 at 13:40

Fish guts are really good fertilisers to use. Last winter I buried some in a small area where the soil was too poor to grow anything except weeds. The difference it made! All plants are growing so tall and lush in that area that I shall do the same to other parts of the garden.

You got to bury deep otherwise the cat or the fox will eat them.

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Permalink Reply by Jan Willetts on June 27, 2011 at 17:39

Was helping my Dad in his garden today and he reminded of a story from my family history about fertiliser. We used to have the winter quarters for Fossett's circus near where we lived. Interesting to be told that the noise we sometimes heard as children was just the lions and tigers roaring and nothing to worrry about. My grandfather being a keen gardener was always asking if he he could have some of the animal manure for his garden. He was politely refused access to the site, but told to help himself whenever the elephants had been taken across the road to an exercise field. He grew the best rhubarb ever! But one winter night, cycling home from the pub, he ran into a pile of frozen elephant poo on the road. It was no laughing matter and he ended up in hospital. The moral of this family tale is that manure can be both good and bad for the gardener!

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Permalink Reply by Michelle Parker on June 28, 2011 at 16:09

We've recently made some comfrey fertilizer by chopping up our comfrey plant and stuffing it into an empty 5ltr water bottle (recycling the drinking water bottles from a friend of a friend) and topping up with water. This way you get to contain the smell whilst it's 'brewing'. We left it for about a fortnight and when i released the lid to open it the smell was like a sewerage!! We then diluted it further for watering/feeding the plants on the allotment... needless to say it's our last task of the day before leaving.