Nettles can be annoying in the garden and the gardener's first reaction is to try to get rid of them. However a patch of nettles is really a very useful thing to have in the corner of the garden.
Dead Nettle in the Landscape
If you want to brighten a shady spot with delicate light-reflecting foliage plants that also produce spring flowers, dead nettle is the happy wanderer for the job.
Nettles can sometimes be found in local farmers' markets, but if you're harvesting your own, how do you do it painlessly?
Lamium (Deadnettle)
Marie Iannotti
Lamium would be my suggestion - especially the pink ones - they do spread and you will have a sea of pink on top of the white/green leaves - they last for quit a while and then will rebloom in the season.
A Painted Nettle
Coleus blumei
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Nettle Tea, Anyone?
by Charlie Nardozzi
Many gardeners are familiar with compost tea and the benefits it gives to plants. Few gardeners, however, consider that other tea blends might be as, if not more, useful for your garden.
Deadnettle (Lamium maculatum) 'White Nancy'
Mature size: 6 inches tall and 3 feet wide. Ideal growing conditions: part to full shade; moist, well-drained soil
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Bull nettle, or horsenettle (Solanum carolinense). This thorny weed, with flowers that look like oversize tomato flowers, is native to the southeastern United States. It blooms continuously until frost, and pollinating insects love it.
Dead-nettle. Another Lamium, just like henbit. It's eaten the same way - and will also form huge carpets covering the ground, especially in spring.
plantago lanceolata ...
Nettle, false nettle
Red-spotted purple (Limenitis arthemis subsp. astyanax)
Cherry, poplar, willow ...
Red deadnettle
This plant creeps over the ground and roots at the lower nodes, forming dense mats. The dark green or purplish leaves are opposite, heart-shaped, drooping and distinctly veined.
Stinging Nettle Tonic: This plant is high in nitrogen so it promotes good leafy growth. Roughly chop up 1.5 kgs of stinging nettle and then add 4.5 litres of water. In a week or so this mixture will have started to ferment.
Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica)
Young leaves cooked for 40-45 minutes and served in their broth are one of my favorite dishes. Seeds can be used in baked goods, porridge.
Golden Dead Nettle - a fast growing ground cover for sunny hill or shady bank. Once this green and white beauty is established, it will thrive under the most adverse conditions.
Shrubs For Steep Hill Ground Cover ...
Lamium or Dead Nettle is a wonderful perennial ground cover - not invasive and flowering.
Stachys or Lambs ears is a gray leafed ground cover that fills in well in evenly moist soils (doesn't llike drought) ...
Skullcap, or deadnettle, is not quite as evergreen or durable. But a handful of wonderful varieties with outstanding variegated foliage are commonly sold through the summer months.
Wash the nettles, sorrel or spinach, scallions and parsley. Chop them quite finely and mix into the drained barley with the mixed herbs. Add salt and pepper, then turn into a colander lined with cheesecloth.
Common Names: Lamium, deadnettle.
Botanical Name: Lamium.
Hardiness: Zones 3 to 9.
Bloom Time: Late spring to summer.
Size: 2 to 24 inches high, 4 inches to 3 feet wide, though can spread indefinitely for certain cultivars.
One of the best foodplants is stinging nettle. Other plants include: alyssum, aubretia, bramble, buddleia, candytuft, catmint, choicia, clover, columbine, cornflower, echinops, fleabane, foxglove, honeysuckle, honesty, iceplant, knapweeds, ...
Dead nettle (Lamium)
False indigo (Baptisia)
Fleece flower (Polygonum)
Foxglove (Digitalis)
Gay feather (Liatris)
Gloriosa daisy (Rudbeckia hirta)
Goatsbeard (Aruncus)
Heather (Calluna sp.)
Iris
Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) ...
Poison ivy, cactuses, and stinging nettles are the most dangerous plants most Americans encounter. However, there is a whole range of potentially lethal flora that makes the side effects of these plants seem negligible by comparison.
Lamium maculatum (Dead nettle). A low, spreading plant with silvery foliage and purple, pink, red or white blooms in early summer. In shady locations, I find this plant spreads happily-not invasively.
The first step is to get rid of the rubbish and dig out tired old shrubs and weeds, especially perennial weeds such as thistle, nettle, bindweed, ground elder and couch grass. Remove all parts of the roots: rhizome, tap root and bits of brick bat.
Soil with a hardpan or hard crust: horse nettle (Solanum carolinense), pennycress (Thiaspi arvense), quack grass (Agropyron repens), field mustard (Brassica nigra), morning-glory (Ipomoea purpurea), pineapple weed (Matricaria sauveolens) ...
I like the easily pulled weeds with lots of foliage - lambsquarters, chickweed and henbit, stinging nettle (wear gloves), and ragweed.
Red admiral - false and stinging nettle
Painted lady butterflies - Thistles, burdock, sunflowers, hollyhock, pearly everlasting
Red spotted purple butterfly - Wild cherry, apple, hawthorn ...
Foliage plants that have stripes or speckles, such as lungwort, hosta and dead nettle, tend to grow well in the shade and provide a striking interplay between light and dark.
Plants That Can Grow in the Winter
How to Kill Stinging Nettles
Floral House
Plants for a New England Garden in May
Impatiens Planting Combinations
When to Plant Crocus ...
'White Nancy' deadnettle (Lamium maculatum) [6] and, appropriately enough, 'Chequers' [2] fill two squares.
Hemerocallis (day lily)
Lamium species (dead nettles)
Malva moschata (musk mallow)
Melissa officinalis (bee balm) ...
A surface structure that secretes oils or resins. Some plants produce glandular hairs, such as the stinging nettle.
Glandular
Of glands or containing glands.
Dead Nettles (Lamium)
Lavender (Lavandula)
Catnip (Nepeta sp.)
Oregano (Origanum)
Russian Sage (Perovskia)
Creeping phlox or Thrift (Phlox Subulata)
Lungwort (Pulmonaria)
Garden Sage (Salvia officinalis)
Meadow Sage (Salvia)
Goldenrod (Solidago) ...
gloves are ideal for pruning roses because they cover your arms as well. This will protect you from tearing your arms and your hands. These gloves also come in handy for pruning other thorny shrubs, handling poisonous plants or pulling up nettles.
 See also: Plant, Flower, Gardening, Water, Spring
  
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