This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Stinging nettles
TheConstantGardenerBee
Posts: 19
My garden (about an acre) has ALOT of nettles popping up. It's a bit of a losing battle. I'm trying to get in early to pull them all up but because of their tubular nature, I'm starting to lose faith I'll ever overcome them. (I also have bind weed, but that hasn't started popping up yet). whats the best way of getting rid of the nettles?
0
Posts
Wait till it has rained and the soil is soft, then slowly -holding the stem as close to the roots as possible - pull them out. If you feel resistance theN use a garden fork to loosen the soil around them. it might take a year or 2 but you will get there eventually, I did too!
Bindweed, grrrr, I'm still struggling with that evil weed myself....
Hi,nettles are a great source of nitrogen, if you have a compost heap cut them back hard and put them on there.on the other hand if you don't want them either spray them with round up,or just dig them up.plus nettles mean that you have good healthy soil.
I agree with Tetley try to see the positive side of them
I understand you do not want them everywhere but while they are there they help to stop other much more difficult to remove weeds growing by providing dense cover. When they die back in the Autumn, the ground is usually clear of other weeds.
Use that to your advantage, let what is there grow to help suppress other weeds while you work carefully clearing small areas. They can be managed this way until you are down to a patch in a small corner where they can be left for wildlife or harvesting for compost improver, soup, or organic plant food.
I make use of them on a wildlife bank. They are down low at this time of year allowing plenty of light in for bugs and reptiles to warm up in the spring. As the season progresses they grow up providing cover and shade. Come the end of the season when light is in short supply again, they die back letting the light in again. They stop any really nasty weeds taking over the area. I could not wildlife garden without them.
we have about 4 acres of young ( 15 yo ) woodland and it's pretty full of nettles. I wait until the leaves have fallen, then mow the lot, leaves, grass nettles around the end of November, stack it in builders' dumpy sacks and by the early summer it makes a great mulch.
re " shallow rooted and easily pulled out", when we were on sandy soil in Hants, that was true, but here on heavy Devon clay, NOTHING is easily pulled out. Everything just snaps off.
Pros and cons in every site eh?
Let me know when you find the pros of clay Hostafan
Same problem here, can't pull anything out of the ground without it snapping because of the clay, it all has to be dug out.
pros would be the fact that in Hants I had to water the garden every single dayfor months on end, now I don't. I used to be able to dump a 2 gallon bucket of water onto the soil and it'd vanish, instantly.
Clay holds onto nutrients which sand doesn't
Come on Gemma, look on the bright side.
I will when the veg comes up Hostafan.
I magically forget the hours of agony double digging the dreadful stuff, the five million times rotavating the top of it to incorporate organic matter in attempt to get it to resemble soil instead of Plasticine. Dreadful to work with but it can't half grow stuff.
I once looked after a garden on clay.
The first time I hand weeded it I could only do about half an hour before my wrists hurt.
After about 4 years there, with compost and manure, when I was hand weeding, if I put my weight on a hand fork, I'd sink up to my wrist.
I'm wondering how long to get this garden into the same condition.
We recon around here Hostafan that the clay 'eats' all the organic material. It seems you can put in endless amounts and still be back at square one the following year. The only plot I know of that was in superb condition was owned by an old boy across the road. He'd been improving it since the end of WWII
I think I've had some improvement in a year, but not a lot really, OH says it will be at least 5 years to see any significant improvement.