Nettles

[A.]

Hi, I have a plot of land which I had hoped to use for growing vegetables, however, we discovered that it had once bern a stock yard and has about an inch of soil over cobble stones. A couple of years ago I had a lot of manure tipped over it but this now full of nettles.

I wondered if anyone had suggestion for getting rid of them? I wondered about mowing it for six months to a year, then covering with cardboard, straw and compost.

[Don Foley]

Hi A,

You will have to remove the Cobbles if you want to grow anything on that site as an inch of soil is no where near deep enough for anything except grass perhaps.
You could alternatively go the raised bed route, i.e., build a series of wood (or other material) sided beds on top of your ground. In this case you will still have to consider drainage if you leave the cobbles in place under the raised beds.

Don.

[A.]

Thanks Don. The stone is too deep to remove, it is quite a large area. I planted 30 apples trees around the edges, I had to use a pick axe but they are growing and fruiting well. They have been in for about 10 years. The manure was piled up quite deeply and I wondered about doing semi raised beds. I have grown tatties and jerusalem artichokes in it but the nettles are the main problem.

[Don Foley]

Hi A,

The best way to rid yourself of the nettles is to dig them out. You could also cover with Cardboard with a layer (4″ should do the trick) of compost on top of that. You may even then get an odd shoot appearing but they will be easy to remove/eradicate.

What is the drainage like on the area your thinking of cultivating. I think that may be your biggest problem? Not insurmountable but a problem perhaps.

Don.

[A.]

The drainage is pretty good, it is on a slope too which helps.

[charles]

Yes nettles disappear after regular mowing so that is an option. They are a sign of fertile soil and show that drainage is ok – for example I never saw any on heavy white clay soil in France, which lay wet in winter.
Or cover with polythene for half a season, say now to year end.

[Valmai Russell]

This note comes from Southern climes…. My interest in ‘alternative’ crops was piqued as a teenager when I learnt that the neighbours were to have steamed nettles for dinner. Some years later I tried making nettle beer – a bit like ginger beer in the brewing but much too yeasty for me to bother attempting again. Now days my garden is spread over ‘too much’ area, it is mid winter and due to my being rather disorganized early autumn not much happening on the fresh greens front, the nettles in what was once a hen yard are beginning to look most appealing.

[A.]

Thanks Charles, I think I will try mowing one bit, then covering later and covering another with polythene to do a comparison.

Valmai, nettles make a very tasty spinach substitute (cooked) and delicious soup. I collect lots of them in Spring and freeze them. Only use young leaves as they start to grow, older leaves after flowering, have cystoliths that can cause kidney damage.

[Valmai Russell]

Thank you for that info A. I will try and keep you posted. Right now I am swaddled in polar fleece and there is snow down the mountain but I will go inspect the nettles and see if there are enough young plants for a soup of some sort or accompaniment for some of my neighbor’s lovely free range eggs – lunch maybe?

[A.]

Baked eggs in nettle nests, yum! Whereabouts are you, if you don’t mind me asking?

[Valmai Russell]

Seems I will be waiting another week or so, just not enough young nettles right now and my man says he can hardly contain his disappointment. Fortunately we have plenty of claytonia and the arugula looks like its on the move so some salads there and then there are the January King Cabbages (seed ex UK) that should take us through till late Aug. We live lower SI NZ and fortunately no frost, rain or snow last night so I’m heading to the garden soon.

[Author]

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