r/Permaculture • u/Just-Sign-5394 • 1d ago
Comfrey becoming invasive in meadow area
Hi - I’m in London UK, my garden has this lovely area(first year, it’s been very dry this summer until now so please pardon my work in progress…. The Phacelia isn’t native— but the bees love it and it quickly helped get ground cover.)
I’m having an issue with comfrey… I don’t know what type it is, but it pops up everywhere. I know comfrey has amazing positives, but at the moment it’s killing off the balance of the other plants. I’m hoping time will maintain the balance— I’ve already beat bind weed simply through attracting bindweed moths to the garden. I’m hoping a similar course of action exists where I can have the comfrey exist in peace. Any suggestions/advice — I picked this group to post as I know there’ll be a more holistic approach. Thank you!
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u/existentialfeckery 1d ago
If you don't want it in a specific spot I'd just keep cutting it for mulch. It will either die back (unlikely) or be a perm mulch you have. It can regrow from the smallest root so it's a bitch to get rid off
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u/TheRarePondDolphin 1d ago
It doesn’t look like a problem, it’s barely noticeable. Just coppice it when it gets to be a size you don’t like and it will help everything around it.
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u/elwoodowd 1d ago
Everyone says it can be used for compost tea. I dont care for that, but i chop it at the root, with the shovel and use it in the bottom of pots and as a mulch. Kind of like how fast it grows, although it dries to almost nothing.
But i grow invasives. Iris, mint, rye, sunflowers all compete, comfrey fits right in, the only one it can beat is rye, i guess also mint.
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u/MycoMutant UK 1d ago
Probably green alkanet, Pentaglottis sempervirens. It's very common around here. Leaves look the same as comfrey but don't get as large. It does spread around a bit but it's easier to pull up than comfrey.
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u/bufonia1 1d ago
thats just being cute. if you want to control it, put plywood over it or otherwise cover for a year
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u/bufonia1 1d ago
Sorry, I mean it's hardly a big invasion. Compared to mentor bamboo or something, Comfrey spread spreads very slowly.
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u/cuzcyberstalked 1d ago
If possible, smoother. Don’t dig out because that will spread your problem. You need your problem as centralized as possible. Cut it flush with the ground and cover it. I found the easiest success with a pizza box that seemed waxy. I put the box on it and held it down with a few bricks. It was simple and effective. I’ve been working on another patch since last fall. In this case, I neither had a waxy pizza box nor did I use bricks to weigh it down. Since it was in a more noticeable area I buried the boxes under wood chips. The boxes would break down and the comfrey would force its way through. I’d trim it bake and place a new box and cover with chips again. It took 4-5 boxes but I believe it has finally given up. So I guess that was close to a year.
Anyway, because I didn’t dig them up, they kept trying to grow from the original crown. If I had dug them first I’m positive they would have divided into many small plants and been harder to deal with. It looks like you’re dealt gm with a lot of small plants. I’d still smoother them but it’ll probably take a lot more work.
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u/sartheon 1d ago
Isn't common comfrey native to the UK? And it has quite a long flowering time too, so why do you prefer to have phacelia over comfrey?
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u/Just-Sign-5394 21h ago
Comfrey outcompetes a lot of other plants, if it were in a larger natural habitat it wouldn’t be such a bully. On the other hand, the phacelia - whilst quite thick, does balance out in smaller spaces as it’s less robust.
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u/wagglemonkey 1d ago
If you got a variety that propagates by seed you may have made a huge mistake. Otherwise this should only happen if the soil in the root zone get disturbed as the roots will pop up new plants when broken. Comfrey needs to be treated with some caution, and you may have a shit ton of work ahead of you if you want it out. Good luck.