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Is there any way to get rid of nettles apart from pulling them up by hand? I don't want to use anything vile and/or dangerous so know easy solutions will be limited. Does chopping them down repeatedly help or do they just rise to the challenge and come back even stronger?

Cutting the nettles will make them grow back but it's the doing it repeatedly that does it in for them. You'd need to keep at it every few weeks during the growing season as it starts to grow back. Eventually it'll probably take several seasons to get rid of an established nettle patch cutting them back (or you get bored of that and learn to live with nettle beer, soup, tea, plant food, wildlife patch).
Mind you listening to GQT (other gardening programmes are available) they do say that for a very well established patch of plants you don't want, even with chemicals it might well take several goes to get rid of them all.

Cheers for the quick reply, more or less what I thought. If only it was a smaller patch that had established itself.....

Why do you want to get rid of them? They are wonderful as food, for nutrient rich tea for your plants and are great for beneficial insects. At least keep some.

Hiya. If you dig over the offending area in autumn and leave all the roots exposed to the frost that'll help kill them off. Then in the spring dig over the ground again and plant potatoes in that area to "clean the soil". We did that with a really messy bit in our garden during winter/spring 08/09 and now its a lovely vegetable patch with some small easy-to-pull nettles coming through.

We do, however have a big nettle patch at the back fence which, as Graham says, is really good for wildlife. Do keep some!

HTH
Kate

Hi Graham, I promise I will keep some,the insects here are fantastic because pesticide use is fairly low in Slovenia but out of 4 acres about 1 acre is a thick 6ft high jungle of Nettles and I can't afford to give that much land up!

Probably need to get a tractor or ride on mower to keep mowing them off and hopefully encouraging grass to take over instead. It would be way too much of a job to try to pull/dig out the roots! I find it bad enough controling the ones that come through from the farmer's field next to my veg patch - great long yellow roots but they always break off. But it's the self seeded little ones lurking under leaves that are the worst cos if I don't have gardening gloves on when tending my veg/flowers they always get me.

You could try using 'sheet' mulching to get rid of really tenacious weeds: cut them back a bit first then cover the area with cardboard and/or sheets of newspaper 2-3 page thick, slightly overlapped so there's no light at all getting through (giving it all a good soak helps hold it in place but still not a job for a really windy day!) then top with something that will hold it all down. If you want it to look nice then use bark chips or similar (we use straw mostly) or you can just weight it down with rocks. If any nettles or other 'weeds' do break through just chop down and add more mulch- either more cardboard or a thick layer of any organic matter (manure, seaweed, old clothes, carpet also work) After a while the nettles will weaken and die back, though you may be left with a few very weak stringy roots near the top of the soil, under the mulch, which pull out easily by hand. You'll also be left with lovely healthy soil full of worms as they love living in the cooler damper conditions under the mulch and you've not had to constantly dig the soil, which can make the problem worse as the chopped up roots will all grow into new plants.

You can also use a living mulch by planting a vigorous crop like comfrey over the chopped back nettles, as well as shading out the nettles Comfrey is such a beneficial plant to a garden to have anyway, so is a bonus in itself. (or potatoes work well as kit-e-kate said )


Good luck!

don't let them get you down!

x

Organicski, please put your location in your profile so we can give appropriate advice. (Although, I think with nettles the advice is the same world wide!)

I think MMM hit the nail on the head with the ride-on mower although I'd love to see an acre of comfrey in full bloom!

The fact that you have nettles means your soil is fertile so that's some consolation as you do battle!

Good Luck!

MW

Thanks very much for all the ideas folks. I think we will use them all. The soil is very fertile, its a pretty amazing place actually. It is in the far north of Slovenia, we are on the side of a shallow valley, looking 500 metres across into Austria, Hungary is 5 miles away and Croatia about 20 miles away. The Goricko Natural Park area of Prekmurje in a tiny village called Kramarovci, its on Google Earth.
It looks very much like Sussex or Shropshire but the temp extremes are well, more extreme! Plenty of rain though, it is a bit Garden of Edenish really.

Sounds interesting, I've just looked you up on a map. So you can go country hopping quite easily from there!

Hi, yes its only since I have been living in central Europe that I have realised the distances are not so great! We can drive back to England in 18 hours including crossing. We can't live full time at the place we actually own though as it is too far to commute.(we bought it before we got the jobs and relocated) We rent a little chalet on a mountain near a ski resort to be closer to work. I am lucky there too though as that has land too! So I have two veg plots going. It is a good experiment finding out which things grow better in which place. We also have a large balcony full of pots and things 4 cucumber plants in a window box are doing fantastically!