12 ways to use nettles

The nettle is one of the most important medicinal plants. In the garden it provides valuable insect food and helps strengthen the plants. We have put together twelve ways to use nettles for you.

The nettle (Urtica)

Anyone who burns themselves on a nettle as a child while playing outdoors will not have fond memories of the plant. Its green, serrated leaves are covered with fine stinging hairs that contain nettle poison. Contact with the skin is painful. A little later, red wheals form and itching occurs. We'll show you twelve ways to use nettles that prove that the positive sides of the plant outweigh the rest.

Are common in Germany

• great nettle (Urtica dioica)
  
• small nettle (Urtica urens)

One meets less often

• Reed nettle (Urtica kioviensis)
  
• Pill nettle (Urtica pilulifera)

Note: The clear identification of the nettle is the square stem and the serrated leaves.

Use of nettles as food

In the past, nettles were mainly used to prepare food in times of need. Today the wild plant is making a comeback in the kitchen. This is an important source of protein and is popular with vegetarians and vegans. 100 grams of fresh nettle leaves contain roughly the same amount of protein as 100 grams of legumes. Use the tips of the nettles. The upper leaves are fresh and tender.

1. Nettle soup

Wash and chop 500g of young nettle leaves. Peel and dice an onion and two potatoes. Then sauté the onion in butter. Then add the nettle leaves. Add a liter of water and the potatoes and let everything boil gently for 20 minutes. Puree the mixture, then season to taste.

2. Nettle spinach

To use the nettles as spinach, puree 500 grams of fresh leaves. Stew a diced onion in the pan. Then add the crushed nettle leaves and season them with salt and pepper.

3. Nettle seeds

Nettle seeds are excellent for refining muesli or yoghurt. You can also use the dried seeds to make protein powder. From July to August you can harvest the nettles in the garden, dry the plants and thereby obtain nettle seeds.

Note: It doesn't necessarily have to be chia seeds, goji berries or quinoa from distant lands. Take a look in the garden or go out into the woods, there you will find local superfoods that can easily compete with their exotic partners. Nettle plants are rich in protein, iron and calcium. Stinging nettles grow in abundance right on your doorstep and can be used so quickly.

Use of nettles in medicine

The plant with the stinging hairs has a long tradition as a medicinal herb.

Your ingredients work

• antioxidant
• anti-inflammatory
• stimulates blood circulation
• antispasmodic
• dehydrating
• diuretic

4. Nettle leaf tea

Nettle leaf tea has a diuretic effect. This property especially helps people with bladder and kidney diseases, prostate problems or gout.

Instructions: Drink a glass of nettle leaf tea regularly. To do this, pour half a liter of boiling water on three tablespoons of dried nettle herb.

5. Nettle pads

Chilled nettle tea toppings can relieve skin problems and inflammation.

Instructions: Dip cotton towels in cooled nettle tea and place them on the affected areas of the skin.

6. Nettle juice

With detox cures, a small glass of nettle juice is drunk every day for one to two weeks. Afterwards you should feel fresher and more productive and spring fatigue will disappear.

Instructions: Harvest the young shoots and leaves. Put these washed in a herb press. Then dilute the extract with water.

7. Bath additive

Used as a bath additive, nettle leaves can promote blood circulation and soothe sensitive skin. You can also buy ready-made nettles as bath additives and soap in drugstores.

Instructions: Pour boiling water over the fresh cabbage and let it steep for a quarter of an hour. Then pour the mixture through a sieve and pour it into the bath water.

Use of nettles in the garden

Stinging nettles have long since established themselves in the garden due to their wide range of uses. Those who want to garden organically cannot ignore the all-rounder!

8. Natural fertilization and plant strengthening

In the garden, nettle manure can replace chemical fertilizers.

Instructions: Put one kilogram of nettles in ten liters of rainwater. All parts of the plant must be completely covered with water. Then close the opening of the vessel with air-permeable jute or linen fabric.

The smell can be alleviated by adding rock flour. Stir the mixture once a day. After two weeks, when no more bubbles appear, the liquid manure is ready. Then remove the plant parts and dispose of them on the compost. Before use, dilute the liquid manure in a ratio of 1:10 with water.

Nettle manure is suitable as a fertilizer for

• cauliflower
• Cucumber
• tomatoes
• potatoes
• pumpkin
• paprika
• flower

Did you knowthat various caterpillars only feed on nettle leaves? Butterfly caterpillars are often monophagous. That is, they feed on a single species of plant.

9. Pest Control

Unfermented nettle broth is used as a pesticide.

Instructions: Put one kilogram of the upper parts of the plant in five liters of water. Let the mixture stand covered for a day. Then take out the nettle pieces and spray the pest-infested plants with it every day for two weeks.

Nettle broth helps against

• Scale insects
• Aphids
• Spider mites

10. Jump start for young plants

Tomato lovers know that young plants need "warm feet". With the use of nettles you get a perfect jump start. Other vegetables also benefit from it.

Instructions: Dig out the planting hole. Then chop up the nettle plants with scissors. Put two handfuls of nettle clippings into the planting hole. Insert the young plant and then fill the hole with compost soil. Water the plant.

11. Mulching

Nettle contain a lot of valuable plant nutrients.

Instructions: Place the nettle plants around the fruit trees on the tree grates. In this way, they protect against weed growth and release important nutrients to the roots.

12. Let the tomatoes ripen

Green tomatoes can ripen in a dark box.

Instructions: Add nettle shoots to speed up the process.

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