The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Land Management => Topic started by: Elenepona on May 14, 2016, 12:48:12 pm
-
Noticed the stingy nettles returning last month and just been away for 5 days to return to what looks like a nettle invasion! They are spreading fast!!!
We've only had our place since September and not had a garden before so was wondering what's the best approach to tackling them. I would rather not use chemicals if possible? What are the dos and donts? Can you spread them more by strimming them?
Be great to hear of other people's experiences :)
Thanks in advance
-
I think the warm wet winter has encouraged the nettles to grow fast and strong. We are inundated with them. I have found the only way to really get on top of them is to dig them up, with all the matted roots, which can extend for several feet away from the clump. This isn't always possible, so I guess pulling up as many as you can and constant mowing may be the other non chemical option. Whilst typing this my arms are tingling from a morning doing battle with our nettle population explosion!
-
i always strim them down and then ferment them in water for plant fertilizer.you can also dry the leaves to make nettle tea, very good blood purifier and detoxer. if you want to permanently get rid of them I would suggest that you chop them down and then using a spade dig out the root systems, be warned though it is very hard work!
-
Don't forget tortoiseshell butterflies use nettles on which to lay their eggs. I watched one yesterday laying on every nettle in a patch. Depending on the day, you can tell they're there because the leaves are a bit curled round, and become more so, held together with a cocoon. leave patches for the butterflies and you will be rewarded with having plenty in your garden all summer :bfly: :bfly: :bfly:
Otherwise, yes digging out with the whole root system, which is yellow, is the only way. Mowing is second best if the digging is too hard going.
Never let them flower (light green tassels) and seed or you'll never get rid of them. We have had to abandon a couple of compost heaps where nettle seeds got in. I too have tingly fingers today from pulling small nettle seedlings out of plants potted up in home made compost.
Nettle tea for plants and people, spring vegetable for a spring pick-me-up, gently steamed, mulch around plants, add to the compost heap, as long as there's not a single seed set, are all possible uses, as WBF says. I mix nettles with comfrey to make liquid fertiliser which is well balanced, as nettles provide nitrogen and comfrey supplies potassium - it's a horribly pungent, stinking concoction while it's infusing, so leave it well away from you.
Sheep, at least primitives, like to eat the older plants at the end of the season, but don't seem too fond of the younger ones.
-
Cattle love dried nettle, if you're strumming and have beasts of your own or nearby ;)
Don't overdo the hands-on unloved pulling btw - I made myself super-sensitive to nettles doing a full day in the nettle patch one year. I'm okay now, but couldn't stand any kind of skin contact for several years after.
-
Pull them up after a rainy day (so the soil is soft and loose).
-
They also make good dye for fleece
-
Leave a dedicated nettle area - as FW says, butterflies love them :)
Also, make some nettle cordial (recipe on the forum, just search) it's really good :yum: and is good for all forms of arthritis. Once you've made and sampled it you'll be quite happy to leave some ;)
-
cut and dry them the goats love a treat now and then
-
You can also crumble dried nettles into your hens feed for a winter tonic.
-
Yes just eat them, then you will be pleased if you have a p,eantiful supply
-
Dry nettles are also very good for storing for winter, nettle teas for a blood cleanser for both you and the animals during the winter months. Make sure they don't go mouldy though. Read this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urtica (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urtica)
http://www.motherearthnews.com/natural-health/stinging-nettle-benefits-zmaz81mazkin.aspx (http://www.motherearthnews.com/natural-health/stinging-nettle-benefits-zmaz81mazkin.aspx)
https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=What+are+the+health+benefits+of+nettle+tea%3F (https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=What+are+the+health+benefits+of+nettle+tea%3F)
-
Leave a dedicated nettle area - as FW says, butterflies love them :)
Also, make some nettle cordial (recipe on the forum, just search) it's really good :yum: and is good for all forms of arthritis. Once you've made and sampled it you'll be quite happy to leave some ;)
Where do I find this recipe HH?
-
Leave a dedicated nettle area - as FW says, butterflies love them :)
Also, make some nettle cordial (recipe on the forum, just search) it's really good :yum: and is good for all forms of arthritis. Once you've made and sampled it you'll be quite happy to leave some ;)
Where do I find this recipe HH?
Here we are [member=81338]Ghdp[/member]
http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=33884.75 (http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=33884.75)
-
Thank you WBF!! :thumbsup:
-
nettle beds that are well matted usually grow on ideal acidic garden soil so if you have the little black nettles or the bigger ones you'll find you have a great garden once you have taken them out .
Dealing with a bed is easy if you cut them down to the ground , fork the cuttings to one side for making a hay type tonic feed .
With the bed mark it off with twine etc in 3 foot wide strips and cut along these lines with a spade digging down at right angles to the surface for at least five inches deep
start just out side of one end of these strips you've cut and again dig down 5 inches , now use a garden fork to slide four inches in under the nettle root bed and start rolling it back on itself as you lift the root sytem out .
every time you ger a decent sized rool you can either leave it in place to dry out and then burn for potash or move it to a composting area where you'll nbeed to stack thse sausage rools of nettle roots , . One each completed pile cover it in a couiple of layers of thick bakc haylage plastic and dig the edges down inthe ground .
7 or so months later when you have time to spare you can go back to the covered heaps and sieve them out remake the sifted material into new heaps and burn the roots you tak out for potash )
Come spring next year these sieved composted heaps can be resieved again to se if any new roots have developed ( if so take them out there & then ) and the fining's spread over the veg area .
There are not usually many new nettles coming up from it . But the few that do will be so easy to pull out whilst wearing rubber gloves .
Sometimes I used this sort of composted roots material as the entire filling content for my 36 inch high table top seed beds . Usually sowing all my transplantable seeds in 1 " wide rings of plastic cut off a three inch dia plastic rainwater down pipe ....so I knew that anything outside a ring was a weed & being white smooth plastic it was easy to use a fine point black Sharpie pen to write what was in each ring before I set it in place .