They should be called stinking nettles

I’ve been thinking a lot about our garden and my reasons for having one.   I don’ think I’ll even break even on the investment this year; I’m hoping next year will be more productive, since the garden bed will ready for planting spinach, kale, broccoli and onions in March. It was still in the planning stages in March of this year. This coming year I plan to be dining on spinach and kale before the summer vegetables are even planted. We have had quite a number of meals right out of the garden this year, tasty, fresh and entirely free of pesticides or chemical fertilizers (used borders of marigolds and cosmos to repel garden pests) I also did a little experimenting with organic fertilizer this year. I’d read a couple of gardening sources that said stinging nettles make excellent fertilizer. So, I decided to try it.  I took a large sack and gloves  to a nearby woods  and picked nettles alongside the path.  I made sure not to pick large quantities in any one spot, mostly due to the fact that if I stopped walking for more than a second the mosquitoes threatened to carry me off.

 When I got home I packed the nettles tightly  into a 3 gallon bucket and filled it to the brim with water.  The instructions said to soak the nettles for least 2 days and then strain off the liquid and dilute it to the color of tea. They also warned  to carefully consider the location of your nettle stew because it would be smelly. They weren’t kidding. It smelled like cow plops and attracted every fly on the block. It was so smelly and the bucket so unwieldy that I was afraid I would spill it on myself while straining the leaves from the tea;  so, I drilled holes in another bucket the same size and gently pushed it down while dipping out the liquid to my watering can. I had enough to water all my new plants and flowers twice. I didn’t see miraculous results, but all my plants look strong and healthy despite the withering heat, and the baby ferns I planted this year are finally starting to grow.