It is already well established that I am a slovenly gardener. If it grows, I'm likely to leave it alone, unless I know it is Bad (like invasive foreign garlic mustard, or poison ivy).
One result is my pretty and Good jewelweed, which can nullify the Bad of poison ivy.
Sometimes, however, my lack of interest in fussing over the yard results in ... well, this turns out to be nettles. Isn't it lucky I identified it via comfy and interesting blog reading, rather than a close-up and personal encounter with the plant?
Ugly may be a stretch, but it is not an attractive plant from a distance. It is tall (8'?), on one stem, with leaves sticking straight out of the stem.
It is more interesting, up close, but *be careful!* Do not touch!!!
It is a nice green, and, I read, is very healthful in several ways, once cooked. So "Bad" may be a bum rap. At least partly.
If you get these spines in your skin, though, You Will Be Sorry. (As always, click on a pic to embiggen.)
I'm going to whack it and pitch it. Nevermind how good it is for you. Sort of like bee stings for arthritis -- I would have to need the benefits of nettles a lot more than I do before I would tolerate this growing in my yard.
Maybe if I had a south 40. But I don't. Just a smallish suburban yard.
I don't even like regular spiny stuff. I don't like getting stabbed. And something with extremely irritating and painful stabbers? No thanks. Bye-bye, nettles.
Well.
Nettle-Whacking, the Aftermath
The nettles have been whacked. The back yard is now safe for humanity.
Before I went out to whack them, well, *as* I was out, but "out picking up after the dogs," rather than "out whacking weeds," I imagined discussing how I was *not* going to test to make *sure* they are nettles. No Mythbuster, I. (I saw the Mythbusters walk across coals last night; surely sticking their bare flesh in some nettles, to see if they really sting, is just what they would do........)
The page I read about nettles suggested dish-washing gloves as safety equipment for removal. I went for my gardening gloves, figuring what works for blackberries will work for nettles.
Poor decision.
Do you know why, class?
I'll give you a hint.
That's right. While my palm was quite sufficiently safe, the backs of my fingers might as well have been bare.
The middle section of my right ring finger is still unhappy, about three hours later. They really really *were* nettles...............
Leslie, I did try the jewelweed. It didn't seem very sappy, and I hated to break off a *big* stem..... All the same it may have helped. (Again, no Mythbuster, I didn't try it only on part of my finger........)
After rubbing with jewelweed, I washed my hands in soap and hot water, and then, I got out the big guns. I bought these super-duper heavy-duty rubber gloves to use for cleaning gutters. I haven't actually cleaned gutters, yet, but they worked fine as protection from nettles.
I proceeded to whack and toss all of the nettles, and all of another weed that I am pretty sure is not nettles, as we have had it before and I've never suffered from pulling it, but it looked like nettles, so it was damned by association. And then I got rid of some pokeweed, just for good measure.
I may not be a very preposessing individual, but to weeds in my yard I can be Nemesis Personified. Especially to weeds which have actually injured me.
Harumph.
As annoying and long-lasting as I am finding this nettle encounter to be, it is invisible. I've not even a bit of redness to show you.
Remind me, next time I'm getting rid of something noxious, to Follow Directions.
Thanks.
UPDATE Sept 20 -- after four hours, I wasn't aware of the stinging all the time (though I could wake it up by washing my hands, say). By the next morning, only hot water (that morning shower....) woke it up. 24 hours after I encountered the nettles, there was no more stinging.
I read about nettles on wikipedia, and learned that while spring-time nettles might be good to eat (after cooking to destroy the nasty chemicals), they are not good eating once they begin to flower. Crystals, which are hard on your urinary system.....
So now I feel even less bad about whacking them. Feh.
.
8 comments:
Well, at least that's one obnoxious weed that doesn't grow here.
My newest gloves are kevlar. But like yours, they still have some fabric on the back of the fingers. Great for blackberries . . .
Good to know!!!
I battle violets in my yard...doesn't sound like a battle, but these babies take over EVERYWHERE.
My finger is still bothering me a little, today. It would be really awful to have it all over your legs, say, rather than just in one small place. And hot water is definitely a bad idea. Makes it much worse, whereas cool water is ignored.....
For some reason I thought nettles grew along waterways. It never occurred to me we could have them in the yard. I'll be more vigilant in future!
Kevlar. Wow. Talk about your big guns. :-) I don't need anything that protective, thank goodness.
I still think you need a goat. Wouldn't a goat eat blackberry vines? I know they eat poison ivy..... :-)
Stephanie, I used to have violets at my old house. I used to let them bloom in the spring, so I could enjoy them, and then root them out of my vegetable garden like weeds, later in the season.
I only live .8 miles from there, now, but up here on top of the hill we don't have nearly as much good soil, and I suspect that's why we don't have nearly as many violets...........
I never tried jewel weed on nettles.
I did get nettles on the bare legs once, rummaging around in the West Virginia woods (not near water)
By the time I saw what I had done, the stingin' was startin'.
Do not get a goat.
All the things you want them to eat, they won't. All the things you don't want them to eat, they will.
And they will stand on top of everything else.
But Leslie, they're so cute......
:-) :-)
At least the kinds with ears are cute. Not so fond of the earless ones -- looking right into a mammal's skull through its earhole is just Wrong.....
And, ok, the billies, not so cute. And they smell bad, too.
:-)
But I know that in places where there are lots of wildfires they are starting use goats to graze out the underbrush, so that when there are fires, there is less to combust, and I know people use them to get rid of poison ivy.....
Not sure how they convince them to stay where they're wanted or eat what should be gotten rid of.....
ps -- after I tried it, I read wikipedia, which specifically mentions jewelweed as a folk remedy that does not work against nettles. :-) I had no idea if it might work, but figured it probably wouldn't *hurt*.....
I read the list of nettle sting ingrediments, and noted that at least one was blahblah acid. Made me wonder if the ammonia stuff you buy for bee stings would work against nettles.... Wikipedia said antihistamines and, um, can't remember, I think cortisone.
Mine wasn't bad enough that I was going to take something systemic. It was more of a curiosity than anything else.
Oh then, by all means ...get ya one of them *cute* goats. :)
I'm surrrre the cute ones only eat what you want them to eat, and never get their horns caught in the fence, or climb stuff and jump over the fence, or any of that other stuff that the bad goats do.........
:-) hahahahahahahahaha...... :-)
ps -- on Mary Ann's Dispatch from LA, she shows goats in LA that were brought in to browse off a hillside....
So I'm not just making it up.
;-)
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