permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

Gaden@ziplip.com wrote:
> Re: Conrad Juraschka's - "Just wondering if anyone has experimented with using 
> Alder (Alnus) leaves or Stinging Nettle (Urtica) in Liquid Teas to fertilize plants 
> with."
>
> Slightly different usage. I used to collect huge bundles of stinging nettle (tried to get it all done in the one day of penance if I could). 
> Hung the bundles upside down in the barn until it was shatter-dry, then crushed it into small bits. I'd mix a couple of handfulls into the chicken pellets. 
> It really gave my chooks quite a boost with lots of wonderfully rich yolked eggs.

Where can I get nettles seeds?

> Corollary to this tale: I had friendly neighbour who liked to indulge in a 
> bit of the 'wacky baky' occassionally. On one of his visits,

Left hand cigars. Hand rolled kind. All natural wrapper.

> he spied my latest harvest of nettle drying in the shed. He was utterly 
> convinced it was something else completely. Thought I was being
> a miserable coot for not sharing some of my 'homw-grown' produce with him. 
> I noticed a few days later a bundle had gone astray!! (not that I was bothered by it). 
> I don't know if he got a good smoke out of it or not? I have heard of it being used in cigarettes for asthmatics. So maybe it did clear his head a bit?

I was a landscape contractor/designer from 1971 for 16 years. Did a lawn seeding job for a client and bought a truckload of oat straw square 
bales to mulch the planting with. I had a young gentleman working for me that afternoon. As we tore apart the bales and commenced to
distribute the straw we noticed some dried leafy plant material mixed in with 
he straw, most was a bit mouldy. Noticed a gleam
in my friend's eye. I think he had plans for some of that mulch.

--
L.F.London
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech