Stinging nettle

Family

Urticaceae

Habit

perennial

Height

1.4 m

Spread

1.8 m

Growth

very fast

Lifespan

20 years

First yield

after 1 year

Hardiness

zone 4–9

Shade tolerance

partial shade

Soil

Sand, Silt, Loam, Clay

Soil moisture

moist – very wet

pH

5.5 – 7.5

Times apply to the northern hemisphere in a temperate climate and shift with altitude and cultivar.

Edible: Harvest the top four to six leaves of young, non-flowering shoots — from March into July, and later still after a cutback, because the plant resprouts immediately. Brief steaming, blanching or drying destroys the stinging hairs completely; after that nothing can be felt. Fresh nettle greens contain around 7 per cent protein plus exceptional levels of iron, calcium, magnesium, silica, vitamin C, provitamin A and vitamin K. Nettle leaf flour is the most storable form: harvest leaves before flowering, dry them in the shade or at no more than 40 °C and mill them fine. The proven approach is to blend it with ordinary flour — a quarter litre of nettle flour to one litre of cereal flour, roughly 20 per cent. More makes dough bitter, dark and sticky. On a dry-matter basis the flour carries 30 to 40 per cent crude protein, which makes it the simplest way to carry garden protein through the winter. It goes into bread, pasta dough, pancakes and soups, and works as a seasoning on buttered bread. The seed, stripped from female plants in August and September, is edible raw or lightly toasted and is traditionally a tonic; it is rich in oil and vitamin E. A teaspoon a day is enough. Young shoots under 20 cm can also be used raw if rolled hard or blitzed.

Medicinal: Nettle leaf is officially recognised as a diuretic for flushing the urinary tract and as supportive treatment in rheumatic complaints; it is among the best-documented native medicinal plants. Its high iron and chlorophyll content make the fresh juice a classic spring remedy for exhaustion and iron deficiency. The root contains different compounds from the herb and is used for benign prostatic enlargement. The seed is regarded in folk medicine as a restorative. Externally, the fresh plant was formerly used to whip aching joints — irritation from the stinging hairs increases local blood flow. Because of the diuretic action, do not use in heart or kidney insufficiency without medical advice.

Other uses: The slurry is the best-known garden use: one kilogram of fresh herb to ten litres of water, left open in the shade for two weeks and stirred daily until it stops foaming. Diluted tenfold it is a fast-acting nitrogen feed; used fresh and undiluted after one or two days it works as a spray against aphids and spider mites. A handful of rock dust binds the smell. As a bast fibre plant the nettle has a long history: nettle cloth was a common textile into the nineteenth century, and in the First World War millions of German uniforms were made from it when cotton ran out. The fibres are fine, tear-resistant and linen-like. In the compost heap, fresh nettle accelerates decomposition thanks to its nitrogen content; as mulch it delivers nutrients straight to the soil surface. Dried, it is a high-grade feed for poultry and pigs.

This plant does not need cultivation, they need an allocation: you give them a corner and keep them in it. They want humus-rich soil high in nitrogen and phosphate, evenly moist, in part shade to sun; on poor, dry sites they stay stunted. pH 5.5 to 7.5. A compost or manure heap nearby is fertiliser enough. Contain the stand with a rhizome barrier or by regularly slicing off the runners, because it travels. Two or three cuts a year, each before flowering and a hand's width above the ground, hold the plant in leaf and deliver fresh, tender material every time. Important for butterflies: always leave part of the stand uncut and in full sun — peacock and small tortoiseshell lay their eggs only on fully sunlit, sappy shoots, never on shaded ones. A good rhythm is to cut half the stand and swap the halves each year.

Easiest from root pieces: in spring or autumn, lift a section of rhizome with at least one bud and plant it shallowly — it takes almost every time. Sowing also works; the seed is a light germinator, pressed into the surface in spring and germinating at 15 to 20 °C in two to three weeks. If you are after leaf mass, note that seedlings come out male or female at random — seed harvest needs female plants, recognisable by their hanging rather than spreading inflorescences. Dividing an existing clump is the safest way to keep a proven provenance. Choose the spot carefully: once established, it stays.

The most important caterpillar food plant in Central Europe. Peacock, small tortoiseshell, red admiral and map butterfly lay their eggs exclusively or mainly on nettles, alongside many moth species. What matters is not quantity but position: only fully sunlit, freshly resprouted stands in sheltered spots get used — shaded nettles at a woodland edge stay empty. One square metre is not enough; two to three contiguous square metres in full sun is the minimum. The wind-pollinated flowers provide neither nectar nor meaningful bee pollen, but the stands host aphids, which in turn feed ladybirds, lacewings and hoverflies early in the year — nettles are a launch pad for beneficial insects. In winter finches and tits take the seed, and a stand left standing provides overwintering shelter.

Special characteristics: indicator of nitrogen and phosphate dense colonies mark rich, open soil; dynamic accumulator (N, Fe, K, Ca, S) returned through mulch, compost and slurry; dioecious+wind-pollinated male flowers visibly puff out their pollen; underground runners forms lasting colonies fast, keep it as an edge crop, not in beds; stinging hairs harvest with gloves; heat, drying and crushing destroy the sting; the most important caterpillar food plant in a Central European garden; one corner supplies vegetables+leaf flour+slurry+fibre+compost material;

Native to Europe, temperate Asia and North Africa; now carried almost worldwide and naturalised across every temperate zone, including North and South America, Australia and New Zealand. Widespread throughout Central Europe from the coast to about 1,800 m, wherever people have left nitrogen behind.

Nitrogen- and phosphate-rich, moist, humus-rich soils: floodplain woodland, riverbanks, rubble sites, roadsides, forest clearings, stock camps, compost heaps, farmyard and garden edges. Part shade to sun, usually in dense colonies spreading by underground runners. A classic nitrogen indicator.