Learning to Embrace my Inner Nettle-Lover

The verge outside, complete with nettle patch

Nettles have been the bane of my gardening life. The dene has rafts of them. The verge outside my house which I haven’t mowed since about 1997 but have strimmed is currently sporting a good collection. Nettles can swamp out other plants and well they are nettles. I have generally opted for pulling them. However as I am trying to recover from my Ecological Tidiness Disorder, I thought I ought to figure out what was a nettle good for.

Quite a lot actually.

Nettles support 40 different types of pollinators. They are particularly important for butterflies – the extravagant ones like Red Admirals and Peacocks, the ones I have buddleia so that they can feed in the late autumn. However, it should have been obvious to me – you can’t have butterflies if you starve their larvae. And these feed on nettles. In fact, a good sunny nettle patch is so important to a Peacock male in enticing a female that he has been known to drive off birds.

The reason why nettles host so many different types of insects is that most giant herbivores will not eat them. Their stings mean that they offer safe havens for the insects at important stages during their lifecycle.

The habitat for nettles is decreasing as verges get mowed in the interests of 'safety', and fields get built over etc. However without them, we will not have Peacocks and Red Admirals. Just as without milk thistle in California, you don't get Monarch butterflies. 

 Nettles grow where there has been human disturbance. They can be used to indicate that a building once should there or that a wood was cultivated.

In short, my pulling out of nettles inadvertently has done more harm to the ecosystem than I had considered. I might be allergic to them but they are important for a healthy ecosystem. And I do worry that they sometimes crowd out other native plants. It had been one of my big schemes for this year – pull nettles early to see what  other wild plants grow.  For example, under the bridge, honesty (good for holly blue butterlies -- had one in my garden last week)  and Welsh poppies have flowered this year because I pulled the nettles early. But I really want to encourage pollinators so I shall be leaving the nettles alone. Or if I do pull them because I get tired of being stung, I will be pulling them after the caterpillar season has finished in July/August time.

It is going to take a change of mind set but it can be done. Nettles = butterflies has to be my new motto. And I do like seeing Peacocks fluttering about my garden in late summer. 

Summer Sale at eharlequin

Eharlequin is having a massive summer sale -- Buy One Get One free. It is for three days only 12, 13, 14 August and includes all of their currently available books. It is a great chance to get books. If for example you missed Taken by the Viking, you could get that. (Generally, books published in April onwards are on the site) But also Donna Alward's latest -- Falling for Mr Dark & Dangerous is there as is Kate Hardy's One Night, One Baby. Or even the current Mira bestsellers. Basically, if it is on the site, it is in the sale. But the sale lasts only until 14 August.

In other news:

Once again we have a surfeit of courgettes, so I am making lots of courgette dishes. Luckily, courgettes are highly adaptable and can easily go into a wide variety of soups, salads, moussakas, stews and even cakes. The pumpkins (for once) are growing.

The lettuce and Swiss chard are doing well. The tomatillos are thriving. Tomatillos are what you use to make green chile sauce. So this year's growing season is far better than last year's.

My only problem is that it has also been a great growing season for brambles, nettles and bindweed...

More on nettles

Liz Fenwick's comment about encountering nettles on her first date with her husband reminded me of my first encounter with nettles.
It was on my first wedding anniversary. My dh had to go to a professional do. The lunch was held in a marquee in the grounds of a lovely old house out in the Shire. My dh went off to play cricket and as it was a hot day, I thought I would go swimming. Apparently there was a swimming hole and the water was refreshing. The man hosting the lunch had measured his length in it that morning and proclaimed it fit for swimming.
Anyway, I duly changed, and went in search of said swimming hole. I was wearing shorts. I can't remember ever finding it, but I did encounter thigh high nettle patches. Lots of them.
Now, I had never had any problem with poison oak. My brother and I used to play in it as children -- much to my mother's disgust. So I will admit to being arrogant and not thinking that I would get much of a reaction,.
I was wrong. Agony.
Yes, my dh said I should have applied dock leaves when I complained later that day. But I had never encountered the plant before, and he was busy playing cricket... He was sympathetic though and did go to the chemist to get anti-itch cream.
Then about eight weeks later when we went to Crete, a new rash appeared exactly where I had stung my legs. Agony a second time.
Ever since I have been careful about nettle stings. Unfortunately the garden does have nettles and I am chief nettle puller. Once I was stung so bad that it looked like I had burnt my neck and the sting took ages to heal.
Depending on the time of year and the plant, the potency of the sting varies.
Grasping the nettle is fine, but still produces a reaction. Leather gloves are the best option. As is weeding in long sleeves and long pants.
Anyway, the nettles are beckoning and growing, so I shall have to don my thick gloves and go out and weed.
Because nettles are rich in iron, they are recommended for anemia, post infection, post labour and liver problems. Other uses include sunburn relief, back pain/arthritis problems and dandruff. It needs to be made into a tea or tonic first. Personally I think there are easier ways.

In other news my author copies of Viking Warrior, Unwilling Wife arrived today. So I am busy getting the review copies sent out...

Wild garlic and stinging nettles

The wild garlic is up. It has been for several days but yesterday was the first day that I really considered using it. Wild garlic and potato soup is a good combo. Wild garlic always reminds me of spring and old woods.
The white anemones (another indication of an old wood) are nearly out in the dene. Therefore, I suspect the wood has been there awhile. The bluebells will be out soon and the scillas are providing a blue haze. The daffodils remain in bloom and the poet's eyes leaves are up. In other words, Spring is advancing.
The other thing I noticed yesterday in the garden was the stinging nettles. The stinging nettles are only making clumps at the moment and I can kid myself that maybe this year, I will be able to get on top of them...or they won't be so bad.
Now is the time to use stinging nettles in cooking. Nettle soup is fine. Nettles are a versatile plant. If you wash the young nettles and then blanch them in boiling water, there is no problem with being stung. But do use gloves to collect as their sting can be quite fierce.
Nettles taste a bit like gritty spinach. And yes, it does beg the question...But they do have lots of vitamin C. I have used nettles in the past -- nettle souffle, nettle pasta and nettle soup. the children are not that fond of nettles. They prefer spinach...
Stinging nettles are found where there has been human habitation. Some times, they are used to determine previously used sites.
In very poor regions including Scotland, there was a tradition of weaving with nettles. Think the fairy tale -- the Wild Swans. It makes a linen type cloth. Rather than the young nettles that you use for cooking, it is the old stalks. Theses are soaked and the fibres extracted. I have never tried spinning and weaving nettles, but was intrigued to learn as I have always loved the fairy tale about the king's daughter whose brothers were turned to swans.
Nettles are also good for making into plant food. Dunk a bag of nettles into a water butt and leave. Then dilute for use on plants. And they are an important source of food for butterflies. Hence, why you should leave a clump or two -- this is not a problem in my garden.
But at the moment, I do fondly think that somehow, I will be able to get on top of the nettles and the brambles. The garden is coming on and the trees are growing, but come a few weeks, the nettles will be knee high once again...
Duck update:
When thinking about the nettles and wild garlic, I realised that there was now a huge gap between the bottom of the water gate and the stream bed. I was all for fixing it this morning when the ducks were safely in bed. BUT my dh insisted we did this yesterday afternoon. He thought he had herded all the ducks back from the neighbour's garden, BEFORE fixing the gate. Uh no. One male duck remained and we attempted to catch it but it eluded us in the ruined gloom that is the neighbour's part of the dene. Hopefully, I and my eldest will be able to catch it this morning. My eldest was at work at the castle last evening.
My Viking first draft is nearly finished.