Serious Nettle issue help needed!

Irishcrx

Hi guys,

I've had a serious nettle problem in my back garden since I moved into the house a few years ago , I basically have a garden full of nettles , nettles growing on nettles 5 foot high, not an inch do they not cover. I have a young son and want the back garden to be accessable to him so need to tackle the issue. We have two dogs for chemicals is not an option for me. I think this is something I can tackle myself over a few days and was thinking about doing it this weekend over the bank holiday. Here is what I want to do..

* Cut the weeds down with strimmers to the stump and dig them up from the soil OR hire a burner out for the day and burn them down.

* Overturn and level the soil and install weed matting over the area.

* Order 2 tonnes of gravel bags and lay gravel over the area. (Any ideas for cheap gravel in Dublin)

* Order some fencing , our current wire has been broken and torn down and sits in the small dividing wall between gardens , I want to install some large 6 foot panels for privacy. Any help with this appreciated I haven't a clue how to install fencing, it will be going into the soil in front of the wall on our side of the garden.

* Buy some pallets and paint them/varnish them and lay them over the gravel for a small 'decking' area in part of the garden (I've seen this done before and really like the idea of it so wanted to try it out)

Any tips/advice really appreciated , I'm sick of the sight of our garden at the minute so really want to sort it out. I don't think it'll be that expensive if I have the tools and put in the manhours??

beer enigma

Could you not keep the kids & pets in from the garden for a day ?. If the nettle problem is that bad, then I'd have thought a Glyphosate weed killer would be the only real option. Roundup is very good & pet friendly too.

Be very careful if you try to strim as the nettles can shred and you'll end up stung from top to toe....goggles essential

Irishcrx

Thanks Andip,

I'd be worried using chemicals to be honest wouldn't want to chance it with the dogs. I've cut them down many a time , every few weeks in the summer but they just grow back very quickly so I have all the 'PPE' to do it only this time I'll be going at them right into the roots and pulling them up...

evolving_doors

ya they pull up easier than nettles so id go that way first before nuclear options.

Btw nitrogen levels are excellent in nettles so if you have a tonne of them, you could throw them into a waterbut and have oodles of liquid fertiliser if they stew long enough

monkeynuz

You will probably find that if the nettles have been there that long that the roots have matted quite well over the soil so diggin might be tricky, although if you start at one side and pull on the stumps low down it can help to start lifting them.

Or get a rotavator in after strimming the turn the ground over with that and then pick the roots after?

Good luck with it.

If you did want to use glyphosate, just keep the dogs in until it has dried and they will be fine. an hour or two on a warm sunny day is enough toe make sure the spray has dried sufficiently. Although you will then need to wait three weeks for the weeds to die back fully.

secman

Do yourself a favour and spray it, as you said yourself you have strimmed it several times already and it keeps coming back. Once sprayed it will take 2 weeks to die back. Then you could rotovate it and reseed it.

monkeynuz

secman wrote: »

Do yourself a favour and spray it, as you said yourself you have strimmed it several times already and it keeps coming back. Once sprayed it will take 2 weeks to die back. Then you could rotovate it and reseed it.

3 weeks

vistafinder

[QUOTE=Armelodie;90558686

Btw nitrogen levels are excellent in nettles so if you have a tonne of them, you could throw them into a waterbut and have oodles of liquid fertiliser if they stew long enough[/QUOTE]

Sounds good. Could you explain how to do this I have never heard of it before

Irishcrx

Thanks for the replies lads,

As said I won't be using chemicals I've hired out a rotavator for the weekend so it'll be cutting , digging and rotavating then laying out the membrane and covering with gravel which I've also ordered.

Also got on to Abwood about supplying me with some fencing and waiting on the call back , I'm half dreading this and half looking forward to it I really am going to have my work cut out for me over the 4 days.

I'll take pictures of the garden as I'm going along over the few days.

evolving_doors

vistafinder wrote: »

Sounds good. Could you explain how to do this I have never heard of it before

Well this is all word of mouth but apparently the science is sound!
So...
Average builders bucket
2/3 fill with water.
Jam pack with nettles,
chop up with hedge clippers,
Cover for about 3 weeks (otherwise bluebottles will infest it...it stinks)
Pour out the juice into watering can and top up with a bit of water.
Water away...

I presume its a nitrogen feed but I dont know the NPK ratio...

I wonder are they nitrogen fixers like peas... I.e. leave them grow away and they will input nitrogen into the soil?

keltoms05

Theres a sale on in chadwicks at the moment which may be of good use to u...

secman

Irishcrx wrote: »

Thanks for the replies lads,

As said I won't be using chemicals I've hired out a rotavator for the weekend so it'll be cutting , digging and rotavating then laying out the membrane and covering with gravel which I've also ordered.

Also got on to Abwood about supplying me with some fencing and waiting on the call back , I'm half dreading this and half looking forward to it I really am going to have my work cut out for me over the 4 days.

I'll take pictures of the garden as I'm going along over the few days.

that's fine if you want a gravel yard out the back rather than a garden, you will need a fair amount of gravel, hope you have ordered it loose, and not prepacked , it will cost a fortune. I did a fairly large driveway, used 45 ton of gravel (3 truck loads) and one truck load of base fill, gravel cost €3,500. The other costs were making sure the base was put down properly, wacked and levelled, before the gravel was spread. Make sure you get the levels right and also make sure you have a decent depth of gravel.

Best of luck with it.

Secman

redser7

Armelodie wrote: »

Well this is all word of mouth but apparently the science is sound!
So...
Average builders bucket
2/3 fill with water.
Jam pack with nettles,
chop up with hedge clippers,
Cover for about 3 weeks (otherwise bluebottles will infest it...it stinks)
Pour out the juice into watering can and top up with a bit of water.
Water away...

I presume its a nitrogen feed but I dont know the NPK ratio...

I wonder are they nitrogen fixers like peas... I.e. leave them grow away and they will input nitrogen into the soil?

Not nitrogen fixers but they are deep rooted and are great at taking up nutrients that are otherwise locked up in the soil. One thing to mention, people usually water the tea down. Most references say 1:10.

yellowlabrador

redser7 wrote: »

Not nitrogen fixers but they are deep rooted and are great at taking up nutrients that are otherwise locked up in the soil. One thing to mention, people usually water the tea down. Most references say 1:10.

I also add comfrey to the bucket. The smell is something else though. I usually use a cup full per watering can of water.

evolving_doors

yellowlabrador wrote: »

I also add comfrey to the bucket. The smell is something else though. I usually use a cup full per watering can of water.

Apologies for off topic but is it ok to use the nettle fertiliser right through to fruiting (say tomatoes!)... I usually just use it for roots and shoots stage then switch to product from shop.

redser7

Well it's high in nitrogen so not the one to use once you start getting flowers. It would give you healthy plants with lots of greenery Comfrey as yellowlabrador mentions is the one to use. It's high in potassium so it's great for fruit and flowers. You can make a tea or use it as a mulch to rot on the soil.

vistafinder

Thats great thanks

Irishcrx

Well the last few days have been very hard work , them nettles had root structures embeded in the soil , I dug , I wrestled them , I rotavated , I screamed and cursed but we got there...very happy with the new back garden and that my son can now go out and enjoy it as he gets older. I'm absolutley shattered literally 14 hour days since Thursday , only thing left now is a skip for what we took out of the garage...few pictures attached of the before and after I can't believe it's the same garden..

redser7

Fair play to you that was some crop of nettles you had there.

lazybones32

Congratulations! When I heard about a Dublin guy with weed in his back garden I thought...

Hope we get the weather now.

Irishcrx

lazybones32 wrote: »

Congratulations! When I heard about a Dublin guy with weed in his back garden I thought...

Hope we get the weather now.

Lol if it was that type of weed I'd be retiring right now...

Whacker paddy

Great job. Looks great.