As someone who has an acre and a quarter of nettles, docks, thistles, creeping buttercup, cow parsley, dandelions, couch grass (but thankfully not ground elder) I can say that anyone replacing the weeds with a 'wildlife garden' is destined for failure. A wildlife garden is an open invitation for all the wrong stuff to come flooding back. In fact the irony with wildlife gardens, casual seed spreading, bee and butterfly friendly wonderlands, lovely wildflowers dancing through the grasses, nature in harmony, is that they are best achieved in areas which have been cultivated for some time. A wildlife garden provides you with a living 'Where's Wally?' game for weeds. Only there isn't one Wally. There are thousands of them - all infinitely better equipped to barge their way to the front than a few sorry cornflowers and poppies. Wildlife gardening looks like a simple, carefree approach to gardening, but I have to say that I wholeheartedly admire anyone who can make it work. When anyone I know has ever shown me a 'wildlife' garden, it has looked like a 'tongue in cheek' joke - an excuse for the fact that their garden is a total mess. Either love the nettles for what they are - harvest them, eat them, make plant food from them, or wine - enjoy the butterflies they attract, or put your foot down, dig them out and go for something that is easier to police.
I agree BB.Surely a garden that allows a few nettles here and there IS a wildlife garden,nettles being the host plant for those butterfly species mentioned by DorsetUK. Perhaps we need to redefine 'wildlife garden' as not poppies and cornflowers but nettles,thistles and dandelions.
you will need to dig it right out if you wish to get rid of it but although you would not want a lot ,it is useful.Good for a feed for plants ,good for butterflies .
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Look out for Small Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral, Peacock and Comma butterfliy eggs/caterpillers though. I've seen hundreds on a nettle patch before now.
As someone who has an acre and a quarter of nettles, docks, thistles, creeping buttercup, cow parsley, dandelions, couch grass (but thankfully not ground elder) I can say that anyone replacing the weeds with a 'wildlife garden' is destined for failure. A wildlife garden is an open invitation for all the wrong stuff to come flooding back. In fact the irony with wildlife gardens, casual seed spreading, bee and butterfly friendly wonderlands, lovely wildflowers dancing through the grasses, nature in harmony, is that they are best achieved in areas which have been cultivated for some time. A wildlife garden provides you with a living 'Where's Wally?' game for weeds. Only there isn't one Wally. There are thousands of them - all infinitely better equipped to barge their way to the front than a few sorry cornflowers and poppies. Wildlife gardening looks like a simple, carefree approach to gardening, but I have to say that I wholeheartedly admire anyone who can make it work. When anyone I know has ever shown me a 'wildlife' garden, it has looked like a 'tongue in cheek' joke - an excuse for the fact that their garden is a total mess. Either love the nettles for what they are - harvest them, eat them, make plant food from them, or wine - enjoy the butterflies they attract, or put your foot down, dig them out and go for something that is easier to police.
you will need to dig it right out if you wish to get rid of it but although you would not want a lot ,it is useful.Good for a feed for plants ,good for butterflies .