Science experiment

After a friendly stranger identified this plant as comfrey, I also learned that it can be made into a fertilizer tea. Since mine grows so large each summer that it falls over, killing the grass, I decided to start a tea of my own the other weekend, to get ahead of the curve. Basically, it's a tub of leaves, held down by the brick, steeping in water. I've covered it with a plastic grocery bag to keep out excess rain water and keep living creatures away, since the plant is rather poisonous; apparently it gets very smelly, too, but the culvert running behind my property smells like the dump lately, so I can't tell. The instructions I received mention to leave it alone until the green becomes a sludge with no lumps left. I think it would be going faster if I had crushed/pounded/chopped up the plant material before giving it a bath, but then again... I'm impatient!

What to do with fertilizer tea? Pour it over nutrient-hungry plants, of course. I am thinking the cherry tomatoes, fuchia, and mini rose.

Another not so great feature of comfrey: it's covered in fine hairs that cause itching and burning to exposed skin. At least it's pretty and potentially useful.