See the comfrey bed above?  I dug out every single root I could find from that spot last year, broke the plants up into smaller segments and stuck them into the ground elsewhere with no water or care.  Not only did all the new starts thrive, the bed now appears to be just as full as comfrey as it was before I dug the plants out.  Time to do it all again!

While I'm on the subject, I thought comfrey transplanting day would be a good time to regale you with the comfrey dos and don'ts I've learned over the years:

Comfrey dos:

• Do use comfrey medicinally as a poultice.  I once cut my foot wide open running barefoot amid glass.  The wound really should have had stitches, but Mom gave me a comfrey poultice, and it healed right up in no time.
  
• Do plant comfrey in pastures.  Although the mature leaves are not their favorite food, chickens will eat comfrey if you accidentally let the pasture get overgrazed.  The birds also enjoy young comfrey leaves even when they have other options.  Best of all, comfrey plants are so hardy even chickens can't kill them.
• Do plant comfrey beyond the eventual spread of your fruit trees.  I've started lining paths in the forest garden with comfrey.  I can cut the leaves and use them as nutrient-rich mulch, and as long as the comfrey isn't close to my trees, they don't compete much for nitrogen.
• Do start a comfrey nursery bed.  Within a couple of years, one plant can turn into dozens of plants that are ultra-easy to move elsewhere.
  

Comfrey don'ts:

• Don't take comfrey internally.  According to some sources, comfrey can be a carcinogen, so I figure it's better not to risk it.
• Don't put a comfrey poultice on an infected wound.  Comfrey makes your skin grow back over a cut so quickly that it can seal infections in, so wash that wound well first!
• Don't plant comfrey within the root zone of young fruit trees.  If you have awesome soil, you might get away with this, but comfrey stole nitrogen from my fruit trees and caused their leaves to yellow.  Comfrey didn't seem to cause problems in the deeper shade beneath a mature peach, though.
• Don't expect to ever plant anything else where your comfrey is now.  Comfrey doesn't run like mint (although it will slowly spread to each side over the years), but it is just as tough to eradicate.  So, think hard about what you want to have in that spot in twenty years before putting in your comfrey.
• Don't mulch with comfrey stems.  Leaves make a great mulch, but the stems can root and start a new comfrey patch where you don't want one.  Similarly, you won't want to let even a tiny root end up in your compost pile or the soil will be full of comfrey plants.
  

Anything else you'd add to my comfrey instruction sheet?

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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