Would like to try growing some Sting Nettle next year! But have had some
people come into my yard to pull some of my flowers! So, just how bad would
this plant be to idiots who come into the yard to pull flowers?

Just as bad as it would be to idiots who plant it. It would only sting those
who try to pick the nettle not the flowers.

If you like being stung by bees, you will love stinging nettle!!!

BTW, stinging nettle isn't the only plant with stinging leaf hairs.

"Aozotorp" wrote in message
...
Would like to try growing some Sting Nettle next year! But have had some
people come into my yard to pull some of my flowers! So, just how bad
would
this plant be to idiots who come into the yard to pull flowers?

Just as bad as it would be to idiots who plant it. It would only sting those
who try to pick the nettle not the flowers.

If you like being stung by bees, you will love stinging nettle!!!

BTW, stinging nettle isn't the only plant with stinging leaf hairs.


It has various uses! Teas! I would like to add it to my cheeses as I heard
that is a very good use! I have drank some hemp brewed beer - no active
ingredient, very good! Believe it can be used there! If they approach my
garden from the side, they will find my dog much worse than any Nettle attack!

Interestingly enough:

The stinging hairs on nettle are sharp polished spines that contain histamine
and formic acid, irritating chemicals that are released when the plant comes in
contact with the skin. While the hairs, or spines, of the stinging nettle are
normally very painful to the touch, when they come into contact with an area of
the body that is already in pain, the chemicals can actually decrease the
original pain. This is why stinging nettle is called a counterirritant.
Applying juice from the stinging nettle to the skin can actually relieve
painful nettle stings or insect bites


"Aozotorp" wrote in message
...
Would like to try growing some Sting Nettle next year! But have had some
people come into my yard to pull some of my flowers! So, just how bad
would
this plant be to idiots who come into the yard to pull flowers?

In article ,
Aozotorp wrote:

It has various uses! Teas! I would like to add it to my cheeses as I heard
that is a very good use! I have drank some hemp brewed beer - no active
ingredient, very good! Believe it can be used there! If they approach my
garden from the side, they will find my dog much worse than any Nettle attack!

Nettles are very nutritious as a potherb. They can also be used to build
character, as in the proverb "Grasp the nettle firmly". Personally, I'd
recommend gloves. Once they are wilted by boiling or steaming, they are
no longer aggressive (the nettles, not the gloves).

Nettles are a sign of rich soil -- they are often found in old barnyards.

"Aozotorp" wrote in message
...
Would like to try growing some Sting Nettle next year! But have had some
people come into my yard to pull some of my flowers! So, just how bad
would this plant be to idiots who come into the yard to pull flowers?

If they have to wade through a patch of nettles to get at your flowers,
and they are wearing shorts, it would be a deterrent. Of course, it
would be a deterrent for you, your friends, family, visitors and dog,
too.

As for deterring flower thieves, I've occasionally put up a sign on the
fence "Please don't steal my flowers" after some lilies and irises were
beheaded, which may have helped, but this is Canada, where people are
notoriously civil. At a house I lived in previously, I grew eggplants
in the little patch of ground in front, and some were stolen. A friend
suggested a sign "Some of these eggplants have been injected with
poison", which I thought was a pretty amusing idea, although I didn't
implement it.

If you are on good terms with your neighbors, they may come out and
yell at the flower bandits for you in your absence. Mine do.

I'd suggest you just decide not to let it get to you. After all, it
means that you've created something appealing enough to be worth
stealing. Also, children often don't realize they are doing something
wrong when they pick flowers, and adults sometimes don't think a few
flowers will be missed.

In article ,
Aozotorp wrote:

It has various uses! Teas! I would like to add it to my cheeses as I heard
that is a very good use! I have drank some hemp brewed beer - no active
ingredient, very good! Believe it can be used there! If they approach my
garden from the side, they will find my dog much worse than any Nettle
attack!

Nettles are very nutritious as a potherb. They can also be used to build
character, as in the proverb "Grasp the nettle firmly". Personally, I'd
recommend gloves. Once they are wilted by boiling or steaming, they are
no longer aggressive (the nettles, not the gloves).

Nettles are a sign of rich soil -- they are often found in old barnyards.

"Aozotorp" wrote in message
...
Would like to try growing some Sting Nettle next year! But have had some
people come into my yard to pull some of my flowers! So, just how bad
would this plant be to idiots who come into the yard to pull flowers?

If they have to wade through a patch of nettles to get at your flowers,
and they are wearing shorts, it would be a deterrent. Of course, it
would be a deterrent for you, your friends, family, visitors and dog,
too.

As for deterring flower thieves, I've occasionally put up a sign on the
fence "Please don't steal my flowers" after some lilies and irises were
beheaded, which may have helped, but this is Canada, where people are
notoriously civil.

Yea, this is the US! I remember a few years ago a Rancher in Meeker Colorado
put some signs on his cows that said this is a cow do not shoot it! They were
all plugged by the end of the hunting season!

At a house I lived in previously, I grew eggplants
in the little patch of ground in front, and some were stolen. A friend
suggested a sign "Some of these eggplants have been injected with
poison", which I thought was a pretty amusing idea, although I didn't
implement it.

If you are on good terms with your neighbors, they may come out and
yell at the flower bandits for you in your absence. Mine do.

These are crazed Czechs from a bar near me! Having had Roma relatives that
roamed that area of Europe - I am inclined to plant the Nettles; but I have
devised a way to lift my garden onto my flat roof! The weight is on the
outside walls and pulls them in!



I'd suggest you just decide not to let it get to you. After all, it
means that you've created something appealing enough to be worth
stealing. Also, children often don't realize they are doing something
wrong when they pick flowers, and adults sometimes don't think a few
flowers will be missed.


Actually they have dumped such as terpentine on the garden - not healthy for
little children to dig in!

and in UK there are some of us who grow stinging nettles for their
innate beauty, even listing cultivar forms, with different coloured
leaves and selling them as if from a nursery.
--
Martin Cragg-Barber

From: "mel turner"


I suspect you're mistaken, and that it is a common false impression
about stinging hairs, porcupine quills, etc. that often work with
the slightest touch.

What about Jumping Cholla (Opuntia fulgida)? I swear I didn't get within 5 feet
of that thing, and I got a couple segments on me.

Sean


--
Visit my photolog page; http://members.aol.com/grommit383/myhomepage
Last updated 03-16-04 with 42 pictures of Chaco Canyon.

From: (Aozotorp)

Would like to try growing some Sting Nettle next year! But have had some
people come into my yard to pull some of my flowers! So, just how bad would
this plant be to idiots who come into the yard to pull flowers?



It isn't dangerous, but painful if you touch it with your skin. The pain starts
fairly quickly, but not quite immediatly. I made the mistake of wading through
a patch of Urtica gracilis in order to take pictures of a really nice stand of
Mertensia ciliata a couple of years ago. I was wearing shorts, and the stinging
lasted about an hour.

Sean


--
Visit my photolog page; http://members.aol.com/grommit383/myhomepage
Last updated 03-16-04 with 42 pictures of Chaco Canyon.

In article , Sean Houtman
writes
From: (Aozotorp)

Would like to try growing some Sting Nettle next year! But have had some
people come into my yard to pull some of my flowers! So, just how bad would
this plant be to idiots who come into the yard to pull flowers?



It isn't dangerous, but painful if you touch it with your skin. The pain starts
fairly quickly, but not quite immediatly. I made the mistake of wading through
a patch of Urtica gracilis in order to take pictures of a really nice stand of
Mertensia ciliata a couple of years ago. I was wearing shorts, and the stinging
lasted about an hour.

Sean

Urtica dioica is probably worse. When I've been stung while weeding the
inflammation last considerably longer than an hour (nearer a day). I've
been stung through clothes as well.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley

and in UK there are some of us who grow stinging nettles for their innate
beauty, even listing cultivar forms,

I have seen a variegated cultivar of climbing nightshade offered for sale, & I
think I ran across a variegated poison ivy. What people won't do just to be
different.
Iris,
Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40
"A tree never hits an automobile except in self defense." - Woody Allen