Friday 24th April 2026 - Comfrey Tea and Promenade Re-opening

I’ve often heard and read about using comfrey leaves to make a garden fertiliser, often referred to as comfrey tea.  Why it’s referred to as ‘tea’, I don’t know especially as it is renowned for its pungent unpleasant smell.  With plenty of comfrey plants, growing on rough areas and verges in the village, I decided to give it a go.  I collected enough leaves, from various plants, to half fill a bucket.  I chopped the leaves up, covered them in water, put a lid on the bucket and left it for three weeks.  I stirred the contents of the bucket pretty well every other day until yesterday when it was time to strain the leaves and bottle the liquid, ready to use.  Going back to the smell; I agree it’s far from pleasant but let’s say; I’ve smelt a whole lot worse; stinking bishop cheese for example!  With a sieve held over a bucket, I started pouring the comfrey liquid but then the handle came off the bucket containing the liquid and most of what hadn’t gone through the sieve went all over the garden path.  I was not amused!  In the end, I managed to salvage about two pints/1100mls.  This morning, as part of our morning walk, I picked some more comfrey leaves and in three weeks, I won’t be using that bucket again!

Good news for the village.  A Parish Councillor has drawn my attention to a post on the Council’s website, which I’ll let you read for yourselves via this link.  In the week, NNDC reported, on their Facebook page, a second spraying of the knotweed has taken place.  This leaves the slump and barricades to clear, before we can once again, walk the full length of the promenade.  

Today’s photo, shows the blocked off section of the promenade, as it looked yesterday morning.