Comfrey Uses in the Garden: The Quintessential Permaculture Plant

Let’s talk about the many uses of comfrey in the garden. In permaculture, we give comfrey as a prime example of multi-functional plants so often that it’s now a cliche. I almost didn’t want to write about comfrey for this reason. But it’s an excellent permaculture plant, I have it growing in my food forest, and so I’m featuring comfrey this month.

Should You Grow Comfrey?

When I was little, my mom grew comfrey and enjoyed having it around for fodder for the goats, its pretty purple flowers, and large mulching leaves. But, she noticed it wanted a lot of water, and that it even acted as an indicator by drooping when part of the garden was getting dry. Eventually, she decided to get rid of her comfrey, since it needed more water than the surrounding xeric plants.

Deciding to get rid of comfrey and actually getting rid of it are two different things. This plant propagates through root divisions, and it’s a tough plant. When my mom went to dig it out with a shovel, some of those roots stayed in the soil. Even the smallest root fragments grew right back into new plants. It took a while, a few years if I recall correctly, before she was able to get rid of the comfrey completely.

So think twice about where to put your comfrey plants, because they will probably be there for a long time. That said, there are many benefits to growing comfrey, and that’s what we’ll discuss today.

Comfrey is native to Europe and Asia and has naturalized in many locations across North America.

How Comfrey Benefits Its Ecosystem

It’s almost easier to list the services comfrey doesn’t provide than what it does. Here are the many benefits of growing comfrey, and some reasons not to grow it as well.

Comfrey’s large leaves shade, cool, and protect the soil, offering shelter and habitat for insects and smothering weeds.

Because it can grow in early succession landscapes and helps other plants get established, comfrey is a pioneer plant. Early succession just means a young landscape with mostly annual plants, grasses, and forbs, that hasn’t had time or inputs to mature into a more densely vegetated and fertile landscape. Like other pioneer species, comfrey helps other plants get a foothold, and subsequently moves the landscape along in succession.

Fibrous roots of the comfrey plant break up compact soil, allowing water in and increasing soil biodiversity.

Comfrey is also a dynamic accumulator, meaning that it mines nutrients from deep in the soil, which accumulate in the foliage and replenish the surface soil when the spent leaves decompose. Potassium phosphorous, calcium, copper, iron, and magnesium are nutrients that comfrey reportedly accumulates (Edible Forest Gardens, volume 2).

Comfrey Functions in Nature

• Breaks up compact soils
• Dynamic nutrient accumulator
• Living mulch
• Pioneer plant
• Pollinator and beneficial insect attractor

Comfrey Uses in the Garden

To reap the above passive benefits of comfrey in the garden, simply let it grow and do its thing. Occasionally take root divisions and chop-and-drop leaves to feed the soil around fruit trees or other plants. But there are some more active things you can do with comfrey in the garden as well. Here are a few.

• Activate compost. Add a few comfrey leaves to the compost pile to give it a nitrogen boost and compost faster.
• Comfrey tea. Make comfrey tea by adding shredded comfrey leaves to water and letting it steep for a few days. Water plants with this liquid fertilizer (don’t put it on young seedlings—it’s too hot for them).
• Green manure. Use chopped comfrey leaves in place of animal manure in your garden. Add it to no-till garden beds for a fertility boost.
• Green mulch. Pick comfrey leaves and use them around perennials as green mulch to protect and feed the soil.
• Transplant fertilizer. When planting fruit trees or perennials, add a comfrey leaf to the hole before planting. As it decomposes, it will provide a little extra nutrition to help the plant establish itself.

Disclaimer

Remember to use caution when using medicinal plants. Basically, use common sense, and don’t use any of the plants I talk about on this website medicinally without further research and professional advice. See my full disclaimer for more information.

Comfrey Medicinal Uses

Beyond its uses in the garden, comfrey also has medicinal uses. Common names for comfrey are knitbone and boneset, referring to its use in healing broken bones. Traditionally, comfrey is also used to treat sprains, bruises, burns, coughs, and inflammation. Extracts from the roots and leaves are used in healing salves and ointments for the skin.

Two substances in the roots and leaves of comfrey are behind its healing properties—allantoin and rosmarinic acid. Allantoin promotes new skin cell growth, and rosmarinic acid relieves pain and inflammation. (healthilne.com/what-is-comfrey)

Use comfrey as a medicine with caution. Although traditionally it is used internally, consumed as tea or tablets, this is no longer recommended. Studies have shown that comfrey has toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PA) that can damage the liver and may be carcinogenic.

For this reason, don’t use comfrey on open wounds either. However, comfrey salves, ointments, and poultices are safe to use topically.

Harvesting Comfrey

Harvest comfrey leaves and roots for use in the garden from late spring through fall. For medicinal uses, harvest young leaves as they contain much lower alkaloid levels than mature leaves.

Propagating Comfrey

Propagate comfrey plants by taking root divisions in spring or fall, but not when the plant is flowering. Comfrey is easy to propagate this way and difficult to kill. In fact, if you don’t want more plants to grow, take care not to disturb the roots.

Cautions

Comfrey Can Be Difficult to Remove

Comfrey offers many benefits to a food forest. However, like all plants, comfrey is not the right plant for everyone in every climate at every site.

Once you have comfrey growing in one spot, it’s difficult to remove. Common comfrey (Symphytum officinale) also propagates easily by seed and can plant itself where it’s unwanted. To avoid this, many gardeners choose Russian comfrey bocking 14 (Symphytum x uplandicum) with sterile seeds.

Comfrey Can Be Toxic

As mentioned in the section about the medicinal uses of comfrey, the plant contains toxic alkaloids and should not be used internally or on open wounds.

Conclusion

Comfrey is an excellent plant to grow in the food forest or permaculture garden when chosen and located mindfully. Use it as a pioneer plant to condition your soil, a natural fertilizer, a pollinator attractor, green manure, and living mulch. Even use the young leaves to make a healing salve.

Do you grow comfrey? How do you use it in the garden or medicine cabinet? If comfrey is a plant you’d like to grow, then you can probably pick some up at your local nursery, but if you can’t find it, or can’t find the variety you want, you can order comfrey root cuttings online.

Happy growing!