SOME people may think it's inappropriate to feature nettles in a gardening column but I'd argue that every garden should have some, in moderation at least. The stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) is one of Ireland's most common plants; one that we're all familiar with from an early age and one that isn't easily forgotten, usually for the wrong reasons. But deride the native nettle at your peril, as this is a plant whose uses range from the therapeutic and curative to the nutritional – for wildlife, livestock, humans and even other plants.
It's a plant celebrated in The Mettle of Nettles, a short book by retired Co Derry postmistress Marian Conway, which was first published in 2015 but is now enjoying a second print run due to popular demand. Pulling together folklore, herbalism, science and sheer common sense, the book is written in quirky, engaging prose often verging on the Joycean, with a sprinkling of Gaeilge. It features a range of recipes – for food, drinks and tonics – alongside homemade remedies to treat everything from aching joints to sciatica. For us gardeners, there's a section on composting with nettles and creating your own liquid fertiliser, which in some cases is claimed to ward off blackfly and even potato blight.
The original version was a mere 51 pages long but spurred by the positive response to her publishing debut, Marian has expanded and augmented her work, filling 118 pages and concluding with advice on how to develop your own nettle plot – though I'm yet to convinced she hasn't written this section with her tongue at least partly in her cheek.
Marian lives with her husband John in the countryside near Magherafelt, about three miles from Lough Neagh.
She has three grown-up children and says her passions are exploring Ireland and nature, while her obsession is gardening, especially growing food.
"I wrote the book because I feel distraught that nature’s abundance of environmentally-friendly, easily cultivated, strong, useful nettles are wasted and lost to us," she says.
"Could we be persuaded that these unsung superheroes of the wild, with their infinite virtues, are beneficial to the health and well-being of our precious loved ones, our fundamental ecosystem, our bodies and maybe even our souls?"
Marian laces her book with bits of spirituality and folklore, much of it transferred, until now, by an oral tradition.
"There is an old saying, ‘The farther back you look, the farther forward you can see’," she says.
"Ireland’s wealth of heritage, those old Celtic spiritual traditions and customs, passed on from generation to generation, over the ditches, and from knee to knee, are still very much alive, their influence as strong as ever."
Since her first edition was published, Marian believes nettles have undergone something of a rehabilitation, with attitudes to this once maligned 'weed' rapidly transforming.
"Grown men have come up to me, smiling ear to ear, and said: 'Well, what about the nettles, eh?', while a young fella surprised me by saying that the nettle book is something good in the world and we so need good," she says, brimming with affection for her subject.
"A lady told me that, after reading my book, she would never again condemn nettles as her number one garden plague, because nettles are much more than just space-grabbing weeds.
"I am beyond ecstatic that people are beginning to respect and appreciate nettles for the fascinating, therapeutic, medicinal plants they truly are. Nettles sure earn their keep and they don’t even deserve to be called weeds."
:: For a list of stockists for Marian Conway's The Mettle of Nettles email: noraandnednettle@gmail.com
