The Permies permaculture website recommended mullein. So last year I bought seeds of 3 varieties and grew them. In their first year they are low lying with large very soft leaves. The leaves can be used for various purposes and apparently the plant has some medicinal uses. But they appeared to contribute little to my vegetable garden. Unlike comfrey (one of my favorites which sends its roots deep to mine nutrients) the mullein roots run horizontal and suck the nutrients out of the adjoining soil. True I cut the leaves and drop them as a mulch and they will return nutrients to the soil but this seems to add little for the work involved.
But in the second year they are a spectacle. A central stem emerges all soft and downy.
Then little yellow buds appear on the stem and it begins rapid growth. I heard it would grow to 5 feet, which I thought implausible but the tip of the specimen below is almost 6.5 feet above the ground.
And the yellow buds develop into a complex maze of flowers.
The flowers are small but attractive.
And attract hosts of visitors.
Then suddenly it is over and all the central stem is a skeleton of its former self, and the mullein is gone. Perhaps to return next year?