Grow Your Own Magazine

Hello,

the nettles are starting to take over again At the moment I chop at them with shears but i'm thinking there should be a better tool for the job.. I'm thinking something like a sickle maybe with a bit of reach but ideally minimal possibility of chopping off any bits of me.. I'm not strong enough for a petrolpowered strimmer/brushcutter and wouldn't have anywhere to keep one so something I can use little and often and leave in the shed.. ideally it could handle thinish brambles too (the reason this hasn't been covered already is that I left the brambles ~6ish tall when my brother brushcuttered them in november so they would have some leverage for pulling up when digging but i haven't got as much dug as I'd hoped)
A look at the spear and Jackson site reveals an alarmingly wide range of possible toold for the job so I'm thinking a personal recommendation would be useful

Many thanks,

Becca

flame thrower

Our garden had a huge patch of nettles and brambles which I wanted to turn into a veggie patch. Younger son (then around 9) took great delight in whacking the heck out of the nettles with a long stick. This was pretty effective and they were then sprayed with glyphosphate when they started to regrow. I have now gotten them more under control and this year should have a decent sized veggie patch (not big by most standards but enough for me to cope with. The other way I have found effective is to don a long-sleeve shirt and heavy gloves and either cut them with secateurs or just pull them out then dig out the roots.

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

Not really comfortable with the idea of using chemicals.. just worries me that if they do that to a plant then what could they do to everything else..? Ultimate plan is to dig the lot out but I need it cut down first (I'm using what I cut as mulch in planted areas and on the compost heap) but they're rapidly colonising about a 1/3 of the plot so I need to be able to chop it down in swathes so I can cover or dig...

Then I strongly recommend a small child with a destructive streak (effective release of energy) and a long stick. Stand back and prepare to giggle as the nettles disappear! Sam still asks why there are no nettles to bash any more Mind you, glyphosphate breaks down harmlessly before hitting the soil and you can immediately plant the area once the weeds are dead and removed.

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

boys just love to destroy things, thing is it never changes when they grow up either hmmmm

That is a little unfair, Sam is a very caring chap and loves growing things in the garden - he just has a decent hatred of nettles

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

I'll see if I can find one tho I have a pretty destructive streak where nettles are concerned myself.. hence the interest in the idea of a long stick with a big knife on the end as I'm probably just about old enough to be trusted with such things (maybe ) I like to see them fall down then start working for me in a compost/ mulch fashion

areia - would the flamethrower not fit in the same weight/ storage issues as the brushcutter? I'm strong when it comes to digging and stuff now, but I can't hold things like that up for very long due to old wrist injuries but maybe they're easier to manage than I think..? know I certainly couldn't have used the brushcutter we hired before..

hahahaha aw bless him mine still has the inclination to destroy everything at the mo, the weening process is slow

i second the boy+ destruction thing.. only time i get help from my brother/dad is if i hire them a big scary tool can't afford to keep doing that that so have to find a solution that I can use as a weedy girlie

flamethower just sounded like fun, i wouldnt mind having a go at those little gas ones you can use for your driveways etc always wondered though whether it would leave scorch marks on your drive as well,

I guess the long stick would work even if you couldn't find the small child - you can select a stick of a weight to suit yourself - no need to worry about a blade on the end No need to spend lots.

__________________
Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

We have a load of nettles that grow along the side of the house which I'm quite happy to let grow (they reach about 8ft at their "height"), as it deters unwanted visitors looking over our fence.

Anyway, some kids (boys) were out by the path the other day and they were whacking them with sticks - nowhere near our house I'm glad to add.

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A simple dude trying to grow veg.

http://haywayne.blogspot.com/ - UPDATED - 11th June

http://www.sloganizer.net/en/style2,HeyWayne.png

I would have thought that the best hand held tool is a strimmer you will not get stung that way jacob

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What lies behind us,And what lies before us,Are tiny matters compared to what lies Within us ...
Ralph Waide Emmerson

Get yourself a grass whip. Here's a link to the one I bought. Grass whip. It's very light and you swing it at an arm's length, so little chance of injury (just make sure no one else is standing nearby!!). You can swing with vigor, or more gently - the blade is sharp enough to cut without lots of force behind it. I use it to try and keep the nettles and couch grass on the as-yet-uncultivated part of my plot under control.

now i wouldnt mind one of them, a grass whip whatever next, im liking it

that I like.. looks light and hopefully not too dangerous to me, and reasonably priced too

I tried a strimmer btw .. barely makes a dent in the tall stuff and about 30secs in I'm fed up with the noise and the weight and pick up my shears instead...

I now have a grasswhip (and a few other goodies whilst I was ordering ) wending it's way to me..

Great, hope it proves useful to you!

will let you know.. expecting much satisying nettle destruction in the near future

opps satisfying..

Sickle or scythe for me dependant on the size of the area. I've used a strimmer in the past but the stems get wrapped around the head far too easily and it's a pain to untie. A brushcutter is best on your strimmer but I wouldn't bother if its less than 25sqm, there's something very therapeutic about cutting it by hand.
Nettles make great fertiliser if you bag them and drop them in your water butt, and the young shoots can be picked and made into nettle soup. They are very popular with the nettle aphid (which only affects nettles), which inturn attracts the hoverfly, so they are not completely without use in a garden.

the area is relatively big, but hopefully getting smaller all the time so I just need to be able to keep chopping them down and composting them and digging what I can so I can keep everything under control.. I did hire a brush cutter for the initial chopdown as the brambles were 10ft+ tall and the nettles were not much shorter but now thats all dealt with I'd rather be able to do a little often rather than it all in one go then watch it grow again.. :O/ I can't see there being a point in the near future where I have absolutely no nettles so I won;t be short of nettle aphids (or hopefully hoverflies.. ) Will see how the grass whip goes and keep my eye out for a sickle (we have a second hand tool guy on the local market so i might be lucky )