Let’s talk about the stinging nettle. Many of us will have bad memories of nettle stings. It’s not surprising that we try to eradicate nettles, especially in a school or community garden setting. But hold on a sec. Spring may not yet have sprung, but it’s on the way, and nettles play a valuable role for the gardener in the spring.
Overwintering nettle aphids are amongst the first to get active in spring. That means that nettles provide a valuable source of early food for birds and ladybirds alike. Watch the blue tits flitting in and out of your nettle patch! Attract them early and they’ll keep coming back for other pests – the blackfly on your broad beans, for example. Don’t worry about nettle aphids migrating from the nettles to your favourite fruit, veg or flowers – they’re very specific to their host plants. Some less fussy species of aphids may even be tempted away from your crops onto the nettle though.
Nettles in the garden
There are so many other reasons to keep a patch of nettles in your garden. Here’s just a few…..
- Nettles make a great liquid feed, or can be added to your compost heap to increase it’s nutritional value (don’t add the roots though….) and act as a compost activator
- They support valuable garden wildlife. According to the RSPB:
“Stinging nettles support more than 40 kinds of insects, for whom the sting can form a protective shield against grazing animals.
Many nettle patches hold overwintering insects which swarm around fresh spring nettles and provide early food for ladybirds. These same aphids are eaten by blue tits and other woodland birds that dart around the stems.
In late summer the huge quantity of seeds produced are food for many seed-eating birds, such as house sparrows, chaffinches, and bullfinches.
Nettles are also a magnet for other insect-eaters like hedgehogs, shrews, frogs and toads, at all times of year.
Certain moths like nettles, as do many of the UK’s most colourful and best known butterflies, such as the Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock Butterflies. Their larvae feed in large groups in silken tents at the top of the nettle stems.”
So if you don’t already have a nettle patch, you might want to create one. A large pot of nettles can be moved round the garden taking those helpful predators wherever you need them!
Nettles for Forest Schools
Nettles are a great Forest School plant too. Use them to make nettle soup over the fire, or a refreshing cup of nettle tea ( although you might want to leave the nettle beer until after the kids have gone home).
They also make great string – over to Sussex Wildlife Trust:
And for those that like written instructions…..
In summary….
Let’s give the final words to GrowVeg who can tell you why Nettles are Awesome (4 mins 52)
Header photo: CC BY-SA 3.0 by Uwe H. Friese, Bremerhaven 2003