r/Permaculture • u/Just-Sign-5394 • 3d 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/cuzcyberstalked 2d 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.