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Nettle and 5 ways to get rid of it in your garden
29.03.2023 04:30
Updated: 14.04.2023 23:02
Nettle, despite its potential benefits, is a noxious weed that burns the skin and causes discomfort.
It actively spreads throughout the garden in spring, preventing plants from developing and gaining strength. There are several effective ways to get rid of the weed.
Cultivation of soil with weed using a hoe
A labor-intensive, long, but effective way to get rid of nettles is to cultivate the soil with a hoe. It is recommended for use in early spring, when the shoots of nettles have just begun to peck out and have not yet formed seeds.
Using the tool, you need to work the soil to a depth that it can cut into, thereby pulling out the roots and shoots of the weed.
After this, you need to collect the nettles and burn them or put them in a compost pit as an addition to the green layer. The soil will need to be processed several times until the bushes disappear completely.
Digging up the plot
A long-lived bush has a root system up to several meters deep. It will be extremely difficult to get rid of such a bush by manual weeding.
Therefore, you need to dig the soil to the depth of a shovel, manually collect and pull out all the exposed roots and then cover the area with nettles with something dark, for example, black film, cardboard, a piece of roofing felt. This method will deprive the plant roots of sunlight. They will stop developing and eventually wither. Digging should be repeated in late autumn. Before winter, the shovel will turn out the seeds and roots, which will freeze the crop.
Folk remedies
In the fight against stinging weeds, you can use long-established folk methods:
- 40% solution of potassium salt for surface spraying of nettles;
- watering young vegetation with boiling water and then covering it with mulch;
- displacement by aggressive green manure or crops with invasive behavior that will drown out the weed;
- burning the place where the nettle grows with a blowtorch.
Herbicides
Nettle can be dealt with quickly and effectively using herbicides. They suppress both the above-ground part and the root. The plant will dry out after treatment. But the treatment must be carried out before the seeds appear, otherwise the nettle will sprout again in the same season.
Experienced gardeners recommend such herbicides as: "Hurricane Forte" for spraying the green mass of weeds, "Roundup" with low toxicity for humans and animals, "Zenkor", used in the spring on newly sprouted nettles.
Mowing nettle bushes
Weeds tend to grow along fences, often outside the plot. To achieve a neat appearance of the dacha, you can mow the bushes as they grow.
Additionally, you can cover the mown weeds with thick roofing felt, depriving them of light, thereby making them weak. Instead of this material, which emits an unpleasant odor due to heating by the sun's rays, you can use sawdust or spruce litter.
There are different ways to get rid of nettles in your garden, including choosing an environmentally friendly and safe approach.
