Comfrey mulch

Building up the soil is a key part of developing a sustainable forest garden. This video shows what happens to some comfrey leaves that have been used as a mulch around one of the young apple trees. Comfrey is deep rooted and acts as mineral accumulator. When the leaves break down they add a range of nutrients to the soil where it can become available to the other plants. The combination of rain, moisture, sunlight help the invertebrates make short work of breaking it down. For contrast the sage leaves at the bottom of the frame are still alive. Look out for the nursery web spider bottom right.

Filmed with a Brinno Gardenwatchcam over six days. One frame taken every 5 minutes.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• comfrey
• mulch
• timelapse
• decomposition
• invertebrates
• soil

[Helioforge]

Wow! the slugs looked almost like mice : ) There are these tiny orange ants in my garden that pull a turnip leaf under ground and strip it in the timescale of several hours. There can be a thousand of them in a square inch, it's amazing!

[forestgardening]

@Helioforge I love the way timelapse lets you see these things that you could never see normally. I think it's amazing to think how much life is there in the garden, out of sight most of the time, but a vital part of the ecosystem.

[TrevorsGarden]

Wow, very, very cool! I like your time lapses a lot. Do you use a DSLR?

[forestgardening]

@TrevorsGarden Hi Trevor, glad you like them. For the longer ones where the camera has to be outside I've been using a Brinno Gardenwatchcam. It's waterproof, you can set the interval and it records straight to a memory stick. For others I use a Canon point and shoot with CHDK for more control. I prefer a point and shoot so that I don't wear out the shutter on my DSLR. I've put a few details on the notes page on my website (linked from my channel) if you are interested in more information.

[VirtualCarcass]

awesome timelapse.

[forestgardening]

@VirtualCarcass Thanks - glad you like it.

[tipafo]

Cool video.  Thanks!

[forestgardening]

@MrReggub Yeah, they eat mine too when they aren't busy eating the mulch. The frog keeps their numbers down a little though.

[MrReggub]

Hi, you are lucky in my garden those little helpers always go for the living plants I am waiting to harvest :-)