Gardening
As well as the potential for encouraging beneficial insects, nettles have a number of other uses in the vegetable garden.
The growth of stinging nettle is an indicator that an area has high fertility (especially phosphorus) and has been disturbed.
Nettles contain a lot of nitrogen and so are used as a compost activator or can be used to make a liquid fertiliser which although somewhat low in phosphate is useful in supplying magnesium, sulphur and iron. They are also one of the few plants that can tolerate, and flourish in, soils rich in poultry droppings.
Recent experiments have shown that nettles are a beneficial weed, having use as a companion plant.
Stinging nettle can be a troubling weed, and mowing can increase plant density. Regular and persistent tilling will greatly reduce its numbers, the use of herbicides such as 2,4-D and Glyphosate, are effective control measures.
Read more about this topic: Stinging Nettle
Famous quotes containing the word gardening:
“The genius of reading and of gardening are antagonistic, like resinous and vitreous electricity. One is concentrative in sparks and shocks: the other is diffuse strength; so that each disqualifies its workman for the other’s duties.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)