<< Stingle Nettle - Urtica Dioica - great for the compost pile,
exceptionally high in nutrients, a deep-rooter (not sure how far;
comfrey roots up to 8' deep). >> - from rbfarr@erols.com
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We had a Blackberry patch on our property (a decaying farm in NY state). In
the hottest months of the summer it was one of my jobs to pick the berries,
which my father used to make superb Blackberry jelly.
The patch was roughly thirty feet square and had been totally untended for
decades, but it bore heavily every year. I donned jeans and heavy flannel
shirt, took a big bucket on one arm and the long-handled Dandelion fork in
the other, and waded in. The heat was oppressive and Blackberry patches seem
to turn breezes back at the border. My hands and fingers would be red and
purple in minutes, and soon it was hard to tell where I had cut myself on the
thorns. At times, as I wormed my way through the tangle, I would be caught
so thoroughly that I despaired of unhooking myself without shredding my
clothes.
The most bizarre thing to me (and at the time I thought it a corollary of
Murphy's Law) was that the whole patch was rank with stinging nettles - and
the biggest berries, and the densest picking, were always in the nettliest
nests in the very core of the patch. I'd arrive there in twenty minutes or
so of careful squirming and poling canes away from myself, with the bucket
only one quarter full, and then I'd finish the bucket off in the same amount
of time without having to move much at all. But the stings...
I have often wondered why that patch in NY was so amazingly dense and
tangled, and why the best berries I have ever encountered outside a store
were in that patch. No cultivation for decades - no fertilizers. It was
being top-composted with over-ripe blackberries and stinging nettle! Talk
about companion planting! And companion protecting the fruit! I'm not sure
which was harder on my hands. I would never have stuck it out and repeated
the short arduous trek and scratches (a badge of pride, eventually) except
for Dad's amazing jelly...
Steve
Would you give me a run down on Blackberry wine if you have time? I
would love to try this. I've let the blackberries take over my fences
in the garden and love to make jam and cobblers. They are great snacking
while gardening too. Love your prose.
Thanks,
lisa in Ca
Hi All,
We are talking about two of my favourite plants.
Firstly the stinging nettle(U.dioica)
This has been in England since Prehistoric days.
Through the centuries it has been used for cloth, food and medicine.
I pick the leaves when young and cook them as spinage, tres tasty!! I
also dry the leaves and make a nourishing tea which is very rich in
calcium. If you drink it regularly fatigue becomes a thing of the
past. And ofcourse nettles steeped in water for a few weeks makes a
great fertilizer!! But you all knew that!!!
Blackberry (Robus fruticosus)
The good old bramble, who would be without it? Certainly not I!! In a
about a month to 6 weeks time, I will be going off to a wood near my house and
with my grandkids help I will be gathering 20-30lbs of berries. I
will then make blackberry wine, a king of the wild fruit world!! My
wife will make jam and my daughters will make jelly!! Any left over
will go into a pie, blackberry and apple, I think.
I grow nettles in my garden already. If I had room I would grow a
bramble bush, but I dont have room. Anyway my kids and gramps right
enjoy our berry-picking outing!!
Be Seeing You!! Dave from Pudsey.
Dave my dear friend,
Hope you don't think this is silly, but could you possibly send me some
stinging nettle seed. It used to be all over here, but doesn't seem to be
anywhere now.
I think it would be a great source of calcium for my old lady bones. thanks
for the very helpful things you add to my knowledge every day.
Could you also be so kind as to e-mail me the uses for dandilions again, it
got deleted before I could file it.
Bonnie
Hallaluyah and cheers to you
Dave
You would be in paradise on our farm! Stinging nettles seem to be found in
many places in the world (I even found one on a high plateau in Tibet,
touched it to make sure - and got stung - much to the delight of the
Tibetans with us) and grow in great profusion in our paddocks, mainly where
the sheep camp overnight, and around the shearing shed and sheep yards.
As to blackberries, they were obviously brought in for their wonderful
fruit but they are a terrible weed, we have bushes the size of large houses
and I have never heard of an organic solution, except if you could accept
goats as an organic solution. We run some angoras in a small, particularly
badly blackberry infested paddock, and they have done a great job of
chewing off all the blackberry shoots. Unfortunately that's not a feasible
solution on a larger, farm-wide, scale. I am forever pulling out baby
blackberries from under all the treees in our yard, where the birds have
sat and enjoyed berries.
I forgive them a little bit each year though when I make blackberry jam and
jelly though.
Shelley
Shelley Harvey
Faculty of The Sciences
University of New England
Armidale NSW 2351
Ph: 02 6773 2726 Int: +61 2 6773 2726
Fax: 02 6773 3376 Int: +61 2 6773 3376
UNE Web Page: http://www.une.edu.au
Although I'd heard about stinging nettles most of my life (I read a lot of
British children's books...) I'd never actually seen any until the last time
we were in Scotland and were walking on the forest paths behind Cawdor
Castle. We were going through a part where the under (or edge) growth was
crowding the path and my bare arm brushed up against some. I was thrilled!
In a little pain, but thrilled. My companion thought I was out of my mind.
The birds planted our blackberry thicket on the east side of the house.
Every year the NGP threatens to cut it down and every year, the jam and the
suryp wins. It's a mess but it's a productive mess!
-Tanya
who was glad for the blackberries this year since the heat did in the
raspberries
Prince Edward County, Ontario
zone 5ish
Steve Emery wrote:
Steve,
I remember blackberry picking in England when about twelve years old, and the
English hedgerow blackberries were also always accompanied by nettles.
Fortunately, docks, whose crushed leaves will relieve nettle stings, grew
alongside almost everywhere. Docks. like nettles are extremely deep-rooted, but I
don't know about blackberries, but there must be some common factor which makes
the blackberry/nettle association a regular one anywhere the two both grow. In New
Zealand neither are native and, though blackberries are widespread and often as
successful as your prize patch, Urtica dioica is extremely rare. Instead we have
the annual nettle, U. urens(also imported) which seems confined to cultivated
areas, and our own U. ferox, the so-called tree nettle (actually a straggly
bush). I am glad I have never found this is a blackberry patch as its sting really
is ferocious and can make one very ill. It has occasionally killed dogs if they
were unlucky enough to run into a patch of it.
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan
Wainuiomata,
New Zealand (astride the "Ring of Fire" in the SW Pacific).
Tanya Huff wrote:
Hi Tanya,
Moira and I roared with laughter when we read this! Both of us have "met" the
British stinging nettle often enough in earlier years. It is nearly unknown in
NZ (although we believe it is here in a few places) and we have never seen it
here.
However, should you ever come to NZ, don't try this "experiment" with our native
U. ferox, which lives up to it's species name. Should you brush up against this
one, you might be thrilled, but you will be in significant pain, not just a
little!!!
Tony
--
Tony & Moira Ryan
Wainuiomata,
New Zealand (astride the "Ring of Fire" in the SW Pacific).
I suspect that blackberries like a high nitrogen environment to give the
biggest, most luscious berries. Nettles are a great indicator of high
fertility - its often possible to spot abandoned human settlements by the
nettles on the ancient midden
kathryn
Reply from Kris Johnson to #99.7835085 From Al782@AOL.COM(Bonnie Christensen
I might need some seed to. I realized after a post I wrote yesterday, as I remember, that I'm getting nettles and thistle confused. Thistle we have, but nettles I haven't seen for some time. Had to look nettles up in wild flower book to refresh my memory of what it looks like. I doesn't look very distinctive, but the sting lets you know when you've met up with it.
Kris
--- Original Note #99.7835085 From Al782@AOL.COM(Bonnie Christensen
Kris Johnson
gardening in Northwest Ohio, near lake Erie (Zone 6)
<< I suspect that blackberries like a high nitrogen environment to give the
biggest, most luscious berries. Nettles are a great indicator of high
fertility - its often possible to spot abandoned human settlements by the
nettles on the ancient midden >>
Kathryn!
What an astute and fascinating observation! The patch DID happen to border
and converge on an area which must have been the kitchen rubbish heap! There
was plenty of evidence of this in old rusted (nearly to dusted) cans, bits of
old shoes, etc. in the patch and around it. Steve
The patch DID happen to border
> and converge on an area which must have been the kitchen rubbish heap! There
> was plenty of evidence of this in old rusted (nearly to dusted) cans, bits of
> old shoes, etc. in the patch and around it. Steve
I always fascinates me how well things grow on an ancient mixture of black
soil, rusted iron and broken glass
kathryn
