Saturday 16 July 2016

Comfrey & Borage.

Borage is an annual and comfrey is the perrenial relative of comfrey.
The active agents in borage are said to cleanse the blood and strengthen the heart.
Comfrey when made into a compress is good for bruises, wounds and rheumatics.
They both belong to the Boraginaceae family.

Borage: Companion plant for tomatoes, squash, strawberries and most plants.
Deters tomato hornworms and cabbage worms.
One of the best bee and wasp attracting plants.
Adds trace minerals to the soil and a good addition the compost pile.
The leaves contain vitamin C and are rich in calcium, potassium and mineral salts.
Borage may benefit any plant it is growing next to via increasing resistance to pests and disease.
It also makes a nice mulch for most plants.
Borage and strawberries help each other and strawberry farmers always set a few plants in their beds to enhance the fruits flavour and yield.
Plant near tomatoes to improve growth and disease resistance.
After you have planned this annual once it will self seed.
Borage flowers are edible.

Varieties of Borage
There are three varieties of borage to grow in your garden:
Borago officinalis – the most common variety, the leaves are blue.
Borago officinalis 'Alba' – the flowers of this borage are white.
Borago officinalis 'Variegata' – the leaves of this one are yellowy and mottled and the flowers are blue.

Comfrey: This is one amazing plant.
Accumulates calcium, phosphorous and potassium.
Likes wet spots to grow in.
Comfrey is beneficial to avocado and most other fruit trees.
Traditional medicinal plant. Good trap crop for slugs.
Excellent compost activator, foliage spray, nutrient miner.
Comfrey is truly essential to all gardens.
Comfrey is edible, where I gre up it was called 'knip bone' or 'knit bone'.
When I was thirteen I twisted my ankle badly at a pipe works and my mum wrapped my ankle in the stuff, it brought out the bruising.

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