The comfrey plant I placed in the herb garden three years ago has been just amazing this year. I have already harvested it twice this year and it is once again huge and ready for one last harvest before fall settles in around us.

Notice the gigantic leaves it has!

Some of the first harvest of comfrey leaves this year went towards making a liquid fertilizer. While this stuff did seem to be awesome in regards to how the plants responded to it I do not know if I will be making it again for the stench was simply awful! Enough to turn my stomach and keep everyone away for several feet! I think when it comes to homemade liquid fertilizers I will stick to my favorite alfalfa pellets and molasses brew.

The second harvest of comfrey leaves was chopped up and spread about the garden as mulch. I really liked it for this. The leaves have all since been worked into the soil and there was nothing like growing my own mulch.

For this third and final harvest (and what appears to be the biggest) I am going to use most of the leaves and stems as mulch. A few leaves and stems I will use fresh to make a comfrey salve. Some of the leaves I am going to dry for multiple uses. I want to have some dried leaves on hand for making homemade cosmetics as well as my well-loved multi herb salve. The second reason for drying the leaves will be for use in dyeing my yarns. I have used fresh comfrey leaves as a dye over the years but have yet to try them fresh. It will be nice to have the dried leaves on hand for use during the winter.

Finally, I am going to experiment a bit with the dried leaves brew a tea from them for feeding all my potted plants. I plan on just placing a handful of leaves in some boiling water and allowing it to steep overnight before I strain and use it on my too large container garden.

This really is one useful herb that I just love having on hand. Being so productive is making it all the better too!

The evil little monster you see above has returned with a vengeance to my garden yet again. It has been a very wet first week of spring here in Northwest Oregon and my number one garden menace is in its element with the perennials that are cautiously emerging. Note my poor daylily and it’s chewed on leaves.

Normally I patrol the garden with a bottle of iron phosphate in hand, liberally shaking it in and around our gardens. Iron phosphate is an organic way of controlling slugs and snails and is safe to use around pets and children. It works by the slug (or snail) ingesting it which causes the slug to stop feeding and in return die. Not very humane but neither is the ole salt trick that my 10 year old always encourages me to do. Nor was the way I handled all the millions of snails I dealt with in our California garden. They were taken care of by me simply tossing them into the street!

The slugs I must deal with up here seem to number in the billions! I am quickly finding out that my normal sprinkling of iron phosphate is adding up fast when it comes to hurting the wallet. However, I know of two other organic methods of slug and snail control that I have been wondering if I should try out.

The first method involves saving egg shells that have been washed and dried and are then crushed into a powder. You then sprinkle the powder around your plants that are being nibbled on. The slugs and snails will supposedly not cross the powdered egg shells.

The second method has to do with the leftover coffee sitting in your pot that has grown too strong to drink. Instead of dumping that coffee down the drain you can spray it onto the slug which is supposed to repel the slimy little pest. Some people claim that sprinkling coffee grounds around the plants also help in repelling them but some studies I have read state that it is the actual brewed coffee that is suppose to do the trick.

Both methods are worth trying and seem a lot cheaper than repeatedly having to go out and buy the container of iron phosphate. I also like how both the egg shells and coffee grounds have an added bonus of boosting the soil’s fertility and organic matter. If they also help rid my garden of those slimy buggers than they are all the better in my book!

Does anyone else know of anymore organic tips for ridding the garden of slugs and snails?

It is no secret that herbs are by far my favorite plants to grow and have been for many years now. I love a plant that has numerous uses both in and out of the garden and herbs certainly fit that bill.

Currently my herb garden still remains rather desolate and sad. But there is a pot of chives on my deck that is happily letting me know that spring has indeed sprung. (Now if the weather would just co-operate a little bit more…) They are also showing me that they will need to be divided this year but that is not going to be a problem seeing that this past winter cracked their terra-cotta pot in several places.

This pot of chives is quite dear to me as I started them from seed over 10 years ago. Over the years and moves we have made I have divided this clump of chives repeatedly and it has never ceased rewarding me with its tasty leaves and flowers.

On top of being good to eat as well as their pretty flowers, chives are also an easy to grow companion plant. Companion plants are any particular pairing of plants that actually help each other out in various ways. Be it some help repel pests with their potent scent (think garlic as well as chives and onions) while others help to attract pollinators and other beneficial insects with their nectar rich flowers. I have heard that chives are supposed to keep Japanese beetles at bay. I do not know how true this may be but an interesting experiment would be to plant some underneath a rose bush seeing that roses can be plagued by both Japanese beetles as well as aphids. Aphids are also suppose to be detered by a planting of chives. In my garden chives are always one of the first herbs to bloom which is also good for the beneficial insects that are searching out nectar for food come early spring.

Companion planting is something I find to be very fascinating and have been incorporating it into my garden more and more each year. Something appears to be working too as last year we saw an incredible amount of ladybugs in the garden as well as unusually small amount of pests. This year I intend to elaborate on companion planting even more throughout my garden and hope to give continuous updates here on this blog.

For those that might be interested in learning more about companion planting I highly recommend the book Great Garden Companions by Sally Jean Cunningham as well as the Wikipedia link on companion plants that can be found here. It has an excellent and easy to read chart stating various companion plants and what they are useful for. Also here is a link to preview the above mentioned book courtsey of Google Book Search.

Happy Organic Gardening!