An aggressive tall ground cover, a plant that makes many people wonder why grow it in the first place, it stings indeed quite strongly - this is a favorite in a permaculture food forest! If planted in a well selected spot where it can spread without negatively affecting gardener's comfort, this plant produces heavily, grows without many demands and puts its incredible life force into dark green foliage that is ready to harvest in mid Spring.
In the dry climate of Southwest the plant is easily controlled by water - i.e. it will only grow where it receives additional care and it will cease otherwise. In wetter climates it will limit itself to "edge" - it is a plant of disturbed ecosystem, that likes to hug edges of forests and groves, where it gets both the shelter from taller woody vegetation and the exposure to sun.
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| Nettle patch to the right of the young apple tree in shady setting |
Nettle patch near a young apple tree in a grove is quite a good placement - the plant seems to stay away from the root zone of the fruit tree where picking up fallen apples would be less than pleasant with such groundcover - but it grows happily nearby. Such food forest design works well for both plants - and it also works well with more complex guilds of farm animals - goats stay away from it, so do the chickens, but earth worms thrive in its protection!
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| Nettle in the foreground |
Once plant gets tall and spiky, and first tiny green flowers appear it is time to harvest. Garden gloves and a large basket is all that is needed. Stems break easily, but can also be pulled with roots as plant only becomes more invigorated by this disturbance! Dried in the drafty shade, the leaves are brittle within a few days - ready for the final step of the process.
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| Shade drying of nettle. |
Garden gloves on again, the plant stings even when dry! Rub-rub-rub - each stem or a bunch of stems - over a deep cookie sheet to catch the leaves - and you are left with a large pile of nettle leaves for tea making. Stems can be brewed into compost tea or foliar spay for greenhouse plants - it discourages aphids and fortifies plants.
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| Harvested in May for a year's supply of herbal tea |
7 comments:
Dear Lots of Life in One Place,
My name is Noah and I am writing you as a member of Eco-Ola, a Peruvian superfood group located near Iquitos, Peru at the headwaters of the Amazon River. We recently became apprised of your blog work and thought we would share our own permaculture story in case your readers might be interested.
On our land at Eco Ola we grow numerous foods including a fare of the ancient Incans, Sachi Inchi, Camu Camu, Maca, an extraordinary Peruvian Cacao in addition to a number of other crops. Our farm is a scalable project, incorporating elements of organic permaculture and agro-ecology. For us, scalability means growth without compromise. As you know, the surrounding rainforest of our farm is among the most biodiverse habitats on the planet, so we feel a profound obligation to safeguard its natural wonders through gentle practices and balanced growth.
Our farm is also an integrated part of the surrounding community. We work together to assure the development of the local populace, many of whom are from the indigenous Yagua community. To remedy this instability, our contracts with our partner farmers exceed Fair Trade standards. To really understand the integrality of our work, please feel free to consult this recent interview with Mongabay.com that will give you a true sense of our ideals and operations:
http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0503-park-interview-eco-ola.html
If you are even more curious, here are the links to our Facebook page and website:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Eco-Ola/168036436569442
http://www.eco-ola.com/
We sincerely appreciate your time and consideration. You are an inspiration for our own travail. Should you ever be interested in a collaboration, or if you are ever in Peru and would like to organize a visit to our permaculture farm for your fans, please do let us know.
With kindness and appreciation,
Noah
Eco Ola
How do you brew the tea? (what proportions or water and dried leaves do you find best?)
Thanks in advance for your response.
Hi, glad to have found your blog. I am South of you in NM and am just learning about permaculture. Enjoying what I'm learning online. Do you have any book recommendations?
Becca
Fresh nettles can also be steamed and eaten as a spring potherb. In my article about foraging for spring greens I suggest using them to make pesto. However, you can use them to replace spinach in practically any recipe. They are delicious this way. If you cut only the top two or three leaf pairs, the stems also will be tender enough to eat.
What is the best way to propogate nettles to establish them in a permaculture garden?
Home made nettle tea leaves are fairly chunky, I use 2 large pinches which look larger than they sound, and a regular tea pot to brew in - and I mix other home-grown herbs such as alfalfa, oat straw, horsetail, raspberry leaves etc -
The tea is light colored at first and then turns deep green. It tastes wonderful and is cleansing to the bloodstream.
Home made nettle tea leaves are fairly chunky, I use 2 large pinches which look larger than they sound, and a regular tea pot to brew in - and I mix other home-grown herbs such as alfalfa, oat straw, horsetail, raspberry leaves etc -
The tea is light colored at first and then turns deep green. It tastes wonderful and is cleansing to the bloodstream.
I've included your site in a list of resources: Sustainability: Reflection and Blog Roll. Thanks for the great content!
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