Garden Recipes With Nettles

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Mother nettle is good in the summer season not only in pies, soups, salads and also in cosmetic recipes for the beauty of hair and body. From it, excellent infusions are obtained for fertilizing the soil, as well as against pest control that eat plants and fruits on them

Interesting facts about nettles

Fact 1. Nettle is an excellent mulching material for vegetables and other garden plants. A better harvest with its help in everyday life in the garden is provided.

Fact 2. Phytoncides and substances contained in nettles resist slugs and snails in the beds.

Fact 3. Where nettle grows well, in that place or next to it, other crops will bear fruit and develop well, as they seem to be charged with immunity from it against many diseases. Moreover, they also enhance their aroma and taste.

Fact 4. Even when it becomes a growing weed in the garden, nettle benefits from the fact that over time, when decomposed, it turns into an excellent humus for garden plants.

Fact 5. The diverse composition of nettle contains a lot of nitrogen, carbon, many micro- and macroelements useful for plant growth and resistance to their diseases, for example, iron.

Fact 6. Nettle infusion can heal the soil in the country, improve the growth, development of vegetable crops on it.

Fact 7. There are a number of garden crops that, alas, do not tolerate the neighborhood and their treatment with nettles. These are legumes, also onions and garlic. That is, infusions and decoctions from nettle to such crops should not be used for feeding or resisting pests.

Nettle infusion as top dressing and fertilizer

To prepare such an infusion, it is necessary in early spring until the end of June, before the formation of seeds on the nettle, to collect its stems and chop them. Then the nettle must be poured with water so that it covers the chopped greens. The solution should stand for two weeks and ferment in a warm place. During this time, the infusion will become dark in color and it should also bubble.

Until there are bubbles on the surface, the solution is not applied. We warn you that the smell from the resulting infusion will not be the most pleasant)). But this is a signal that the infusion is quite ready. Apply it like this. For each liter of infusion, add 10 liters of water and spill soil under the plants, feed them vegetables in the garden.

Nettle and plant seeds

To improve seed germination, you need a teaspoon of dry nettle (this is a recipe for winter and early spring, because nettles can only be found dry at this time), brew with boiling water (1 glass) and leave for two hours. The seeds should be folded into cheesecloth and dipped in the nettle infusion, directly into the glass where it was infused. It takes two hours to keep the seeds in such an infusion. This improves their germination, hardens and stabilizes their germination.

Nettle against pests

Nettle is the best remedy against aphids. Especially when the summer is dry, it means that there will be a lot of aphids, so you should resort to this recipe as often as possible.

Nettle infusion for spraying plants against aphids is prepared as follows. 2 kg of fresh nettles should be poured with a whole bucket of water without chopping and allowed to stand under the lid for 24 hours. Then the infusion is filtered and sprayed with plants where aphids have appeared, without diluting the nettle liquid.

In order to prevent late blight from spreading on tomatoes, as a preventive measure, spray the plants with a solution of fermented nettle (the recipe in the subtitle is nettle infusion, as a top dressing and fertilizer). Only dilute one part of this solution with 20 parts of water.

By the way, there is an opinion of some experienced gardeners that if the weed nettle is not removed next to the planted tomatoes, then the tomatoes will be better stored after harvesting.

Other recipes with nettles

Nettle helps with bruises from summer work. Only a recipe for such a nettle must be prepared in advance and then use the product as needed. A glass jar is tightly stuffed with young nettles, poured with vodka and left to infuse in a warm place for up to five days. Then the infusion is filtered, poured into a bottle and stored in the refrigerator. The tool helps not only with bruises and bruises, but also disinfects wounds and heals them.

And very dirty country dishes can be perfectly cleaned of grease, scale, food debris with a washcloth made of nettle and plain water. You will be very pleased with the result of the dishes cleaned with a bunch of nettles without detergent.