Growing and Using Comfrey in Your Garden

There are a number of reasons you should be growing comfrey. Comfrey is hardy to Zone 4, does well in full sun or partial shade and once established, can easily grow to four feet or more, with large grey-green leaves and delicate purple flowers. As a plant, comfrey will add interest and beauty to your garden, but its usefulness extends beyond its aesthetic appeal. Both the flowers and the leaves can play an important role in improving the yield and quality of your vegetable garden. 

Planted now, Comfrey will establish through the rest of the growing season and bloom in late April or early May, offering important forage for bumblebees and other pollinators. Flowering will continue through the greater part of the summer, encouraging pollinators to stop by your tomatoes, peppers, squash and other vegetables, improving blossom set and increasing yields. The leaves of the comfrey plant can also be utilized to improve your vegetable garden. Comfrey leaves hold rich deposits of nitrogen and potassium and can be used in a number of ways to feed your plants as well as improve your garden soil. You can begin harvesting comfrey leaves when the plant is about two feet tall. Cut the leaves down to within a few inches of the crown. The plant will rebound quickly, sending out another set of leaves. In fact, you should be able to harvest comfrey leaves three or more times during the course of the season. Once harvested, comfrey leaves can be utilized as a mulch, a green manure or you can make a tea or fermented plant juice out of them. Mulching your tomatoes and vegetables with comfrey leaves is easy. Simply place several inches of leaves around the base of your plants. This will act as a mulch to hold moisture in and prevent weed from germinating. As the leaves break down, they will slowly release nitrogen and potassium to your plant’s roots.

 If you want to comfrey’s nutrients faster, brew some tea. Simply cut up the leaves, place them in a clear jar, add water and set in the sun. They’ll brew just like sun tea. In a few hours, you’ll see the liquid start to turn brown, indicating the brewing process is working. After 32 to 48 hours, your brew should be ready to use. There are three advantages to doing your tea this way. It’s quick. You normally don’t have to dilute the solution to use it and it doesn’t smell. You can ferment comfrey leaves and achieve a stronger solution, but the process takes weeks and the end result has a strong, disgusting smell. Comfrey can also be used to energize your compost pile. Layering comfrey cuttings in with your compost is an effective way to jumpstart decomposition. At the end of the season, lay your final comfrey leaf harvest on top of the garden and cover it with compost or earth worm castings. It’s a great way to improve the soil through the winter.  

Now is the Time to Plant Hardy Hibiscus

This is the time in the growing season that one of the most spectacular flowering perennials begins to bloom. Hibiscus x moscheutos or hardy Hibiscus are tough, resilient perennials that can take our winters and come back strong. Sometimes called rose mallow, these cold-hardy woody-based perennials were developed from native plants and are now hardy down to Zone 4. Hardy hibiscus like their place in the sun, so select a site in the garden where they'll get as much sun as possible. They can be grown in partial shade, such as an East-facing location, but the flower production may not be as great. 

Once established, hardy hibiscus can easy grow 6' high and 6' across so keep this in mind when you're choosing a planting spot. If you don't have room for a full-sized plant, there are dwarf varieties of hardy hibiscus that only get about 3' tall and 3' wide. Hardy hibiscus like well drained soils, so prepare the planting site by mixing compost and peat moss with your existing soil at the rate of about 50:50. Add some Root Stimulator to the planting hole to ensure good root production. Planted now, you should get flowers yet this season. Hardy hibiscus flowers only last a day, but the flower production will go on all season, right up to first frost. In our area, the canes will die back after the first hard frost. When they do die back, cut the canes to the ground. Water the root ball occasionally during the winter. Hardy hibiscus plants are among the last to emerge in the spring, so give them plenty of time. Too often, people think the plant has died over the winter when in fact it's still alive, just dormant and slow to emerge. Some of the spectacular varieties of hardy hibiscus include: 

‘Dark Mystery’ 

‘Candy Crush’ 

Planting hardy hibiscus will add unique color to your garden landscape for many seasons to come.  

Mid-summer Tomato Growing Tips

  

Mid-summer can often bring problems for tomato plants, including Blossom End Rot, Leaf Curl and Blossom Drop. Some of these problems can be attributed to the weather. Tomato plants fruit best when the daytime temperatures are between 65-degrees and 85-degrees Fahrenheit. When the daytime temperatures are consistently above 90 degrees, growth slows down and fruit set stops. 

Leaves will begin to curl in response to the stress of high temperatures. The plant does this to reduce the surface area and slow down loss of moisture. Your tomato plant can still be productive if you practice good watering habits and add mulch around the base of the plant. Best practices for watering tomatoes include regular deep, thorough soaking at the base of the plant. Avoid overhead watering as this can lead to disease problems. Adding two to three inches of Mountain Magic Soil Pep mulch around the base will stabilize the ground and reduce moisture loss. It’s also important to know that leaf curl can occur due to insect stress. Western flower thrips are common in this area and can cause leaf curl as well as fruit loss due to Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus. To know for certain, bring us a leaf sample. We’ll scope it and determine the cause of the leaf curl. If it’s thrips, we’ll recommend an application of Dusting Sulfur to bring them under control. 

“My tomato flowers keep falling off. What can I do?” is a question we're often asked at the Diagnostic Center. A number of factors can cause your tomato plant to not set fruit, including inconsistent watering, temperature and lack of pollinators. You can help the pollination issues by gently shaking the plant to distribute the pollen. You can also plant herbs such as Comfrey nearby to encourage pollinators to visit your garden. Applying ferti-lome Tomato and Pepper set will also help. 

Tomatoes need nutrients in order to produce the best fruit consistently through the rest of the season. Fertilize your tomato plants now with Happy Frog Fruit & Flower. This certified organic fertilizer is designed to supply phosphorus for flower and fruit production. Beneficial mycorrhizal fungi are included in Happy Frog Fruit & Flower fertilizer to enhance nutrient uptake. 

Dark blotches on your tomatoes indicate a condition known as blossom end rot. This occurs because of a calcium imbalance in the plant. To treat Blossom End Rot, be consistent with deep watering and apply a liquid calcium directly on the leaves and fruit, using ferti-lome's Yield Booster. When it comes to growing tomatoes, many factors can influence fruit quality and production. A trip to The Flower Bin Diagnostic Center will ensure you know what to do to get the best from your tomato plants. 

Plant Daylilies for Summer Color

Daylilies are among the most popular perennials and for good reason. Daylilies are easy to grow and don't require much in the way of maintenance. Daylilies are very adaptable to a wide variety of soils and conditions. It's one of the features that make them popular landscape plants. 

You'll find them planted along streets and sidewalks, often under rock mulch, blooming away. That being said, you'll get the best from your daylilies if you take the time to prepare the planting site soil properly. Daylilies do best in full sun. They'll tolerate light shade but flower best when they receive at least 6 hours of sunlight a day. Daylilies belong to the genus Hemerocallis, a Greek word made up of two parts: hemera  meaning day and kallos which means beauty. An appropriate name, since each flower lasts only one day. Given that established daylilies produce an abundance of flowers that open over a long period of time, your plant will produce blooms on a daily basis through much of the season, especially if you remove the spent flowers. 

You'll find daylilies in our Perennial section. These are well-rooted daylilies in one-gallon containers, ready to take home and plant. You'll also need some compost and peat moss, to amend the planting site soil. When you're ready to plant, mix the Sheep, Peat and Compost 50:50 with the native soil. Make the planting hole twice as wide and one and a half times as deep as the one-gallon container your daylily came in. Remove the daylily from its pot and place in the planting hole so the crown of the plant is even with the surrounding ground. Now mix three and one-half tablespoons of Root Stimulator to one gallon of water and pour into the planting hole, making sure the roots are wet with this solution.  Finish up by filling the rest of the planting hole with amended soil. At this point, you can add a couple of inches of mulch to the planting site. Soil Pep makes great mulch as well as a soil conditioner.  Easy to grow, low maintenance daylilies are hardy perennials that thrive in our climate. They establish quickly, grow vigorously under a variety of conditions and will provide color to your summer garden for many years to come.