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Stinging Nettle

Original price $4.00 - Original price $4.00
Original price
$4.00
$4.00 - $4.00
Current price $4.00
Urtica dioica - One of my favourite wild edibles! Few things are as good as feasting on steamed nettles in spring, after a long winter with scarce fresh greens. I like to cut the leafy young tops at about 6 inches tall. They're delicious steamed like spinach or pureed into a soup. Light cooking will deactivate the barbs, making them stingless. They also make delicious herbal tea, either fresh or dried.

Native to Eurasia, and naturalized in North America. Considered a weed in some places, although here in Atlantic Canada it's uncommon to find growing wild. They like growing in moist sites, with either full sun or partial shade. They slowly spread through their roots, and can naturalize in meadows or open woodlands. Several hundred seeds

-Harvested in Nictaux, NS by Annapolis Seeds
Growing Info
Sowing Indoors early/mid-Spring, I start mine in plug trays in the greenhouse in April.
Transplant outdoors After the risk of frost
Spacing 8-12" between plants
Soil requirements Moist and fertile soil is ideal. But nettle will grow happily as long as they remain fairly moist
Harvest Once established, pick the greens through spring up until flowering (early-summer). Will often produce a second flush of leaves in autumn.
Light Full sun to 3/4 shade, they thrive in dappled deciduous shade
Life cycle Perennial
Cold hardiness zone 4
Other notes Plants will spread via rhizomes, consider growing in containers if this is an issue