comfrey, metal art sale, wreath-making

It's About Thyme

tel: 512-280-1192 Dec. 10, 2010

Nursery notes: METAL ART on sale this weekend - 20% off.

Includes sculptures and arches. / Gift Shop Sale starts Monday. 20%

off all merchandise, including talavera pottery, t-shirts, and forest faces.

New shipment of seascape strawberries arrived this week: $1.49
for 4" pot. These are some of the most productive and easy-to-grow

varieties. / The nursery is taking a winter break from Barton Creek

Farmer's Market. Chris will return in the early spring, and will now

be at the nursery every Saturday. / Winter hours: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

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Last chance! How to Craft a Seasonal Wreath, takes place at 2 p.m.
tomorrow, Dec. 11, and on Sunday, Dec. 12. Learn how to create a
beautiful bayleaf wreath to hang in your home over the holiday season.

Lots of vacancies for Sunday. Fee for all materials and instruction: $35.

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Reduce, Reuse . . . Precycle This Saturday morning at Wheatsville,

learn about reducing and re-using resources by pre-cycling - presented

by fiddler extraordinaire Lisa Schneider. 11a.m. Free.

3101 Guadalupe Street, Austin, 78705

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England's finest, ancient trees - 20 stunning photos published

last week in the Guardian. Well worth a visit... ancient oaks

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Comfrey seems to be the trendy herb of the moment. See below

for Chris Winslow's article... and watch Central Texas Gardener

(KLRU) to hear yet more praise for comfrey from Trisha Shirey. C.L.

Williams also talks about landscape design techniques. Sat., noon

and 4 p.m. Sunday, 8 a.m. - or click here to watch it now.
http://www.klru.org/ctg/

The water of the Greater Comferie druncke helpeth such are bursten, and that

have broken the bone of the legge.' - Baker (Jewell of Health, 1567)

The Comfrey Zone

By Chris Winslow

One interesting herb that we hear so little about is comfrey (Symphytum
officinale). This easy-to-grow perennial is from the borage family, and
has broad leaves, and blossoms with small bell-shaped, light-colored
flowers.

It has lots of uses for the organic gardener, and also for those of us
interested in botanical medicine. Organic gardeners like comfrey
because its leaves are rich in plant nutrients. As it grows and matures,
comfrey mines a host of these nutrients from the soil.

You can use the herb’s leaves as a mulch, a side-dressing, make it into
comfrey tea, or create a compost. Each method will provide organically-
derived nutrients to your vegetables, flowers and landscape plants.

Comfrey is especially rich in potassium, an essential plant nutrient
needed for flower, fruit, and seed production. Gardeners can also use
comfrey leaves in small amounts to activate compost. Its nutrients give a
big boost to the process, helping to breakdown organic matter into rich
soil amendments.

In the world of medicine, comfrey has been known as ‘knitbone,’

because of its ability to speed up the healing of bone fractures, bruising

and cuts.

However use of the herb internally is a somewhat controversial subject.
The FDA warns against it due to possible liver damage.

(Vast amounts of info on this at the amazing botanical.com

website: comfrey )

Growing this herb is fairly easy. All you need is a shaded, well-drained
location with plenty of compost and a slow-release organic fertilizer
(blood and bone meal) to give it a start. Keep it on the moist side.

Your stand of comfrey can easily be increased by root division.
Segments of these black, turnip-like roots can be cut and placed into
the soil to create new plants.

Using comfrey in this way as an organic source of plant food, along with
composting, brings the gardener yet another step closer to independence
and self-sustenance.

(The nursery has comfrey in 4.5 inch pots for $3.29)

Happy gardening everyone!

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