Nettles, Nettles, Everywhere
The snow is melted and the nettle sprouts are unbending and pushing skyward. Recently I got curious about the history of nettles, and didn’t have to look far to find a spread of information. Turns out nettles have wide roots, both culturally and in the soil. Native to Europe, Asia, North America, and parts of Africa, they are now found worldwide. Lore on many continents tells us that nettles have been used as medicine, food, and fiber for centuries, In Europe, nettle fiber has shown up in fabrics woven as far back as the Bronze Age.
Like the boy in Aesop’s fable, my first experience of nettles was the sting. As an adult, most of what I hear is that stinging nettle is considered a nuisance, a weed to be rid from any garden or lawn. But our ancestors would have been more inclined to take the moral of the fable to heart. Warriors, whalers and fishers rubbed their bodies with nettle to stay awake, and sufferers of rheumatism whipped their joints with nettle stalks for relief.
The Pacific Northwest is particularly suited to nettles because they grow in temperate climates where it is wet. Is this a curse, or are we lucky? Our native nettles flourish. Flowering, deciduous, perennial plants with wide-ranging rhizomes, they also reproduce by seed. An individual plant will usually produce either all male or all female flowers (thus the Latin name Urtica dioica: Urtica=burning, and dioica=dioecious). Flowers bloom mid-summer and are adapted for wind pollination. Nettles are survivors. The sting comes from thin, hollow hairs covering the stems and undersides of the leaves that contain formic acid, histamines and other chemicals. For this reason herbivores leave them alone, but small organisms aren’t bothered and make nettles a sanctuary (including aphids. Ever think of using nettles as an aphid trap?). Nettles support the larvae of many species of butterflies and moths, and are the exclusive host for three species common in the Pacific Northwest: Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta), Milbert’s Tortoiseshell (Aglais milberti) and Satyr Anglewing (Polygonia satyrus). As well as the role they play in the ecosystem, nettles can be beneficial in your garden, and not just for attracting insects. The nutrients that render nettles a super food also improve the soil. Permaculture circles use the term dynamic accumulator – those long roots search far and wide to bring in nutrients. Fermented nettle tea is rich in nitrogen and other nutrients, and can be used as fertilizer and compost starter. Last year, I tried some nettle compost tea on my garden and the plants did very well for a first-year garden. Was it the nettle fertilizer? Don’t know, but I’m happy enough to try it again this year. I stopped by Pickles Deli and asked them to save me out some five-gallon, food-grade plastic tubs with lids - the very tubs that the pickles come in. Pickle mixed with fermenting nettle has an amazing, fertile smell.
Setting aside its usefulness in small gardens, I ran across research into larger uses for these nutritious weeds. Nettles are being considered in aquaculture to enhance growth and stimulate the immune systems in farmed fish. Some European fabric designers use nettle fiber in new sustainable textiles. One nice thing about nettle fabric, it’s soft as silk. Could it be that nettles are a crop to cultivate? Well known is the extent to which the Northwest Coast peoples used nettle to make cordage and nets, as well as medicine. Evidence shows that they fertilized nettle fields with the waste product from processing candlefish. There are also records of selectively harvesting nettles, pruning them in late summer so they would come back stronger the next year. Nettles were traded and transplanted. Sounds like cultivation to me.
In my garden planning this year, I have set aside patches for the cultivation of nettles so that I’ll be sure to have plenty now and for future years. Maybe not everywhere, but definitely nettles somewhere.
–Janet Richards