Nettles: Tips for Growing AND Containing this Nutritious Spring Perennial Veg

[@dasila108]

That was great! I'm so on team nettles I feel like I just went to church!

[@frithar]

My fav recipe: orange juice, two bananas, large handful of nettles. Blenderize into the yummiest smoothie you'll ever taste

[@frithar]

This is another way to eat them raw.

[@mjk9388]

That sounds delicious!

[@debbieschaffner2581]

You can use them in your Pesto. Nutritive medicine, good in tea or tincture. Awesome support during peri menopause and post menopause. Gotta have a large stash of Nettles to make it through winter! I love your solution for growing!

[@tracycrider7778]

Did not know this! Awesome!

[@Zan823]

Rheumatoid arthritis too😊

[@creatinghanley]

Didn’t know that about menopause, and now I’m even happier that I bought some rhizomes for this year’s planting!!

[@marisasanchez1699]

I looooove Nettles!! I look forward to them in the cooler months every year. It makes a fantastic pesto 😋

[@welshhymnspontrhyd]

They’re also great as a butterfly food - one of my major reasons for letting them grow round in clumps - I have Collected them, with bittercress and dandelions to make weed soup ( much to The amazement of my foster daughter! ) Having moved to a big site now I realise o also have the joys of ground elder to add to that. Yummy!

[@frithar]

Moved to a house with a four by ten foot patch in the yard. I LOVE MY NETTLES!

[@603provisions7]

Very educational, thank you.

[@colleenavery232]

Excellent info - an aside - rub it on a joint w/RA and it REALLY relieves the pain.

[@hikingaftersixty]

Last year I saw an elderly gentleman harvesting what he told me were nettles along a hiking path I frequent. This year I tried them as tea and love it! I admit to adding some honey to each cup. My arthritic knees are much less problematic, but around the same time I started anti-inflammatory supplements and fish oils so I can’t say to what degree the nettles helped. Regardless I enjoy them and have started drying the leaves. I have a broken wheelbarrow I was hoping to repair but think I’ll try growing nettles there instead. Thank you!

[@hunnybunnysheavymetalmusic6542]

I find that it is an awesome antihistamine! I only found out when I got a case of pork poisoning [I'm deathly allergic to pork and it can literally kill me by shutting down my entire G.I. tract] and a friend of mine had some and gave me some and it toned down the rage of the allergy enough for me to pull through. That said, right now, I'm cooking up my spring batch of poke.

[@maryhoffman9551]

Thanks for covering this topic. I've been so curious about growing nettles. Your method sounds like a do-able way to grow nettles.

[@juliam3980]

I bought those nettles from Oikos Tree Crops maybe 6-7 years ago. They still sting, but I guess not as much as the wild type. I have to tell you, I haven't been cutting off the flowers, and they have not spread/sprouted anywhere else in the yard. They get REALLY tall where I have them, in a low hugelkultur berm beyond the drip line of a massive apple tree.

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

Thank you for sharing your experience! It is good to hear they don’t reseed heavily

[@alicepettit164]

Desired to grow, but responsibly, great ideas. thx

[@gregorys447]

Planted seeds in the fall, hoping for success soon! ( upstate NY zone 6)

[@CliffsidePermaculture]

I have some potted up starting last year i hope i get to try them

[@pennypiper5857]

Thanks great information.

[@julienblanc4368]

I have noticed a relationship between nettles and Galium aparine (it seems to me they are found together often). They like grass cuttings and soil rich with nitrogen. I don't know if its some kind of symbiotic relationship or it's just phytosociology (they like the same growing conditions...)

[@aurorawhite3359]

I am excited to try to make pasta with the stinging nettle growing in a shady patch of my yard. It probably only gets 4 hours of direct sun at most in the peak of summer

[@jam_is_jammin]

This was my first year ordering from Oikos Tree Crops. I was looking forward to ordering from them again, but they have retired and will be closing down. Do you know of another place to source perennials? They were a treasure trove and I wish I had started gardening sooner so I could try more of their offerings.

[@Edenmm]

If you forage for them put them in a bag attached to the waist im usually on a bike then walk home by the time you home or even sooner you can chow on them. By the way the more you touch them the less prodomoninent the burn and its used in my area by the people to bring back feeling in arthritus driven individuals. So the stinging is not seen as a bad thing. Maybe the first or second time you first encounter the plant but after it gets better.😊

[@alexc1105]

I've never tried them but apparently the seeds are super nutritious and tasty.... you're missing a crop there.

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

I haven’t tried the seeds, either. Honesty I feel like for the few tbsp I might get, it’s not worth risking them spreading. In the past when we’ve grown them on another property, I cut them back when they were in flower. But good point: so many uses! They are also a good fiber plant and a sustainable substitute for cotton.

[@donelda135]

In the winter will they get too much rain water in the wheelbarrow with no holes and not survive?

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

It does drain slowly. It never gets soggy. It just doesn’t have and big holes for rhizomes to get through.

[@wymomo808]

Does your upcycled planter have drainage holes?

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

Yes! It is quite leaky, which is part of why ain’t no longer worked as a wheelbarrow

[@Zan823]

They are related to mint

[@fabricdragon]

sadly the nursery has closed. 1. how is your nettle patch doing? and 2. are you selling, or do you know anyone selling, trading or giving rhizomes?

[@Hayley-sl9lm]

I just bought a couple of plants for half off in the native plant section at Portland Nursery if you're local, they still had some left (the one on Division)

[@Hayley-sl9lm]

I just found some stinging nettles in the native plant section for half off at Portland Nursery. I guess the subspecies gracilis is native to North America (or I guess some taxonomists are arguing that it should be a separate species) so if you get that one I wouldn't feel as bad about it spreading? Would still probably be a pain in the butt regardless if it got out of hand but I'm wondering, now that it is getting hotter and drier all the time if it might become easier to control 🤷. I guess it's supposed to be an important host plant for several butterflies.

[@truepatriot223]

It looks like Oikos does not have any rhizomes available anymore? Willing to trade for some excellent home made maple syrup or dried wild foraged mushrooms?

[@AmelieHarms]

My plan for getting a nettle stand is to put a stick in the soil where I want the nettles and tell my boys to pee on the stick whenever they need to go this summer. 😆

[@AmelieHarms]

I had nettles in my old garden, and here are some tips from me: - I love nettles in herbal salt. - You can use nettles later in the season as well. Just chop them and use the new growth. - The chopped off nettles are great for your garden as well! Make fertiliser from them or compost them. Or just drop them if you don't have kids in your garden. :)

[@ceili]

I have a love hate relationship with them. I use them but they spread to where I don't want them

[@rosem7042]

Well I didn't know that there are "less-sting-y" nettles... but I'm not about to rip out all of our wild ones just to find out.

[@mikkimik6681]

Whoever thinks the sting is terribly painful, is brain washed. I kind of like it. It is not a burning itchy stinging rash, its more like a tingle that can last for over 24 hours. I rub it on my finger with arthritis ,as it reduces( actually gets rid of ) the inflammation and pain almost immediately. I use it on my old horse's knee too.

[@darlingstuff1560]

on and on and on....droning.....:(

[@leerobertson3015]

But if you’re kinky they can be fun