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Ugh, I have plenty of stinging nettle, and you are more than welcome to come dig it ALL out for me. I've been digging and digging and digging for 6 years now, trying to get it out of my blackberries, with no luck. I have to wear long sleeves, long pants, really thick gloves, and I still manage to get those horrid little burning hairs embedded in my skin. I actually have a long scar on my thigh from where a stem slapped against my leg when I was picking berries. I had a big, sore welt for ages. Think really, really hard before you decide you want those!
Does anyone know of any way to kill this blasted stuff, without also killing my blackberries? I've searched on-line, but all I can find is suggestions on how to kill nettles AND unwanted blackberries.
There is a native nettle (Laportea canadensis -- Canadian Woodnettle) that is just as good at accumulating nutrients as the invasive European nettles (Urtica dioica, I think?). You can often find it in native plant nurseries. Incidentally, both types of nettles supposedly make excellent cooking greens (the stinging bits are deactivated immediately by boiling water).
Watch out where you plant comfrey: it can get invasive, too.
Does stinging nettle have little spines on the leaves too? I planted some mint seeds a year or so ago and a strange little plant popped up amid the other mint, the leaves were serrated, but a little rounder than the mint and there were tiny hair-like spines along the stem AND the leaves. I made the mistake of brushing my finger along a leaf and boy did it sting!
Yes, both the stem and leaves have little stinging hairs. The stem looks kind of square-shaped, with deep vertical ridges running along it. Ugh. I spent a couple of hours this week weeding them out, as they are already trying to go to seed, and only got about halfway through the patch before I ran out of time. Get rid of it before it gets well established, or you may have a real battle on your hands!
Thank you much, that's good to know. The oddest thing was the nettle appeared in a seedling tray of mint I had going, in the middle of winter, and inside! To this day I have no clue how it got there. I pulled it out, but then we lost power and heat for a week and I forgot to water my plants and everything died. But now I'll know what to watch out for!
