Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
"p.k." writes:

The thought of wandering down in the dark and discovering that they
had grown taller than anticipated springs to mind!

They are a traditional stimulant of peripheral blood flow - see
Cleland's Fanny Hill for the use of light flagellation for the
purpose.

Ooh, Missis! I'd bet on the strawberries succumbing to the urinary
treatment before the nettles, though.

Judith, if you can't get them out by hand, you could cover each
strawberry plant with plastic or even cardboard and then sprinkle the
nettles with glyphosate before they get too tall. If this isn't
practicable, it's a question of digging up all the strawberries, then
killing the nettles, then try putting the strawberries back. It may even
do some good if they're old enough to need replacing with fresh runners
in the summer. You won't be able to harvest your crop this year anyway
if they're guarded by a barrier of nettles -- and with that many nettles
you may not get a good crop, so you haven't got much to lose. (I imagine
you'll be able to get enough runners to replace the bed simply by
leaving in the row nearest the edge: easy enough to cover a single row
with plastic and hand weed it later.)

There will be seeds in the ground, so you'll need to watch carefully for
a couple of years at least: the seedlings are easy to pull up or hoe.

A ghastly spot to be in.

--
Mike.