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Yes, you read that right! Nettles have a bad reputation as annoying, stinging, creeping weeds… but many of us do not realise that nettles have multiple AWESOME benefits for us and our gardens!
In this video, Ben convinces us to love our nettles and explains why we actually NEED nettles in our gardens. Sound like we’ve lost the plot? Well let’s see!
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And they make a fantastic nettle salt to cook with. It goes so well with meat.
Oh, I hope I find nettles in my yard! I let my stream bank grow wild, and I love finding things that I didn't know was there! This year, we have a random blackberry briar (probably planted by a passing bird 🙂 ).
I love Nettles, I made nettle pesto, soup and other recipes, but I also make a nettle shampoo bar, and hair tea. My hair loves them too
Several years ago I took a wild foods class at a park in West Seattle. We foraged wild nettles, steamed them and layered them with phyllo dough to make Spanakopita! Delicious! We also collected dock and other "weedy" greens and made a tasty salad. I have been eating my garden weeds ever since. Just love your videos!
I've been boiling nettles to eat for fifteen minutes cos I was worried about the sting from them so I was wrong then. I'm going to extract the furry bit inside the stalks when ready to make fabric which I've seen on here…utub
Nettles are companion plant to fig tree.
I use dried nettle for tea in the winter to mix with others herbs.
They can also be eaten raw. Tried it myself a few times.
Supposedly , good for joint health and regulation of the thyroid (hyper or hypo)!
I drank it often after postpartum hypothyroidism and I do really believe it helped me!
Netttles do not grow here . Could they? Hot and dry here most of the time ! North central Oklahoma!
I want nettle and comphry so badly
I watched a sparrow eating the nettle seeds today. It is something I have never witnessed before.
Ok, you won me over!!! Thank you for this video.
Nettle liquid fertiliser really stinks and only has a shelf life, I am told, of about 6 months. So, in theory, the stuff left over from the previous year would be not as effective in the spring of the next year. So, I suppose, there is, in theory, a bit of a 'hunger gap' until your first batch of the new year is ready in mid/late May (timetable Mid Wales).
However, I am a convert to Nettle concentrate which has no bad smell (well not as much!), takes up much less storage space (diluted 1 to 50 or even 1 to 100 rather than just 1 to 10) and, again I am told, has a shelf life of up to a year. It is working for me.
Ben, why not do a follow up episode showing folk how to make the concentrate?
Also apart from dilution rates I am never quite sure about frequency of feed (I am opting for once a week from planting out to the end of July) and just how much to water in (opting for 5 litres of dilute solution for each 3 metres of raised bed – so one watering can full per bed). Are there any guidelines for frequency and amount you can share with us?
thanks
Russians whip themselves with this plant in banya (Russian sauna).
Excellent so so very interesting!!
I use compost tea after planting tomatoes, only before flowering, and then comfrey compost tea, I make ravioli with cheese and nettle.
What a wonderful video. I have tons of nettles in my crazy garden, but I never considered them a fertilizer. What a great idea! Thank you so much, Ben.
How long can I keep this liquid nettle fertilizer?
Just seen this and, yes, Nettle Tea very good. Next doors have an unruly nettle patch … might ask if I can raid it.
Best video yet Ben ! Lots of useful info. I am curious as to what makes them sting in the first place and how boiling manages to remove the sting ? I'm still reluctant to make a nettle tea for fear of a scratchy throat !
I acquired a couple of nettle roots from a friend, for herbal, nutritional support and they were growing well! I moved last May, bringing a bunch of herbs and saved seeds to a property that has a neglected veggie garden (read fallow and covered in years of leaves), small apple orchard (6 trees) and blueberry bushes (3). It's a marvelous space and we hurriedly and randomly planted too much and got an overwhelming harvest and also an overwhelming number of pests and disease. I got the garden planner to make the most of a smaller garden this year. Your videos stoke my enthusiasm!
they love my allotment seed them themselves everywhere and soon swamp my plants out if I am not quick enough to get them out they do my head in.
Another thing overlooked often- nettles provide very strong, but soft and breathable fibers with a silky sheen, farming nettles is far less damaging than cotton for the environment, especially as the leaves and seedheads can just be left to mulch after harvesting to promote a second crop, they do not require endless fertilizing and pesticides to grow and they can easily co-exist with local wildlife, they are just as useful as their cousin- hemp, which sadly you cannot grow legally, but in spite of the stupidity of making a plant illegal, nettles are a good alternative to cotton without the legal troubles of hemp. If we can industrialize the separation of the pulp and fiber, we could revolutionize textiles, especially clothing, for which it is ideal!
I've been learning about neetles and their various uses and they sound great, a really healthy option. However, I also heard that once the neetle plants flower you can no longer eat the leaves unless you cut the plant back to encourage new growth. Is this true and if so, how much of the plant do we cut back to encourage that new growth?
How do I stop nettles spreading into the plants and places I don’t want them without spending hours pulling them up?
nettle not commons in Indonesia, i ever tried eaten nettle leafs with sambal its soo bitter ..now i know tht nettle so useful ..i would tried to grow nettle more
We had a brush pile we cleaned up and a whole mess of nettles sprung up. Well my first thought was, dang, but I seen a couple videos and yours about making fertilizer. I haven’t tried it yet, and noticed an interesting use as they were between a soybean field and our acreage that the Japanese beetles loved them! Who would have thought that?
I had whacked some out earlier in our path before all this new found info. I almost was ready to vanish them and now I love them. All the years we avoided them as a kid as they were prolific in the shaded ravine and where a natural organic floor was and here they have great potential. I also noticed that I usually find blackcaps growing in the same area so there must be some beneficial use they get from each other. I knew about tea, but this is all so much more.
For those that need to contain them, I believe they have a rhizome root and edging may contain just like for mint family. Can’t remember if they have square stem, maybe they are mint family.
Great vid, thanks!
Seeds very, tasty, nutritious and store well