Thistle and Stinging Nettle are some of my least favorite weeds. These little guys refuse to go without a fight!! Heck, the nettle will sting you for just walking by. My thistle has such nasty prickers it will sometimes go through my gloves. Heaven forbid you ever step on either with bare feet!!!!

I hated them until I found out how useful they are. Here is how to turn them into a great liquid fertilizer:

Walk around your garden and, with gloves on, pull the weeds. Loosely fill a 5-gallon bucket, add water to within four inches of the rim. I “muddle” or crush the weeds with a small log. Then let it stand for a week.

Why am I doing this? Both Thistle and Stinging Nettle are very good at growing their roots deep and taking up nutrients from the soil. At the end of the week of soaking, you can strain away the plant matter and toss it on your compost. Now you will have a green liquid that is full of nutrients for your garden.

To fertilize your seedlings, dilute your weed liquid: 3-parts water to 1-part weed liquid.

If you would like to supercharge your weed liquid: when first adding the water to the bucket of freshly-pulled weeds, add ¼-cup Molasses and one tablespoon EM1 (Effective Microorganisms) and give it a good stir before letting it sit for the week.

I am also going to say here that some gardeners add very diluted urine (5% concentration) to their homemade liquid fertilizer. Being a nursery for the public I do not do this because...ew. But, a good wee produces 5 grams of nitrogen (N), 1 gram of phosphorus (P) and 2 grams of potassium (K) per liter, which provides a well-balanced fertilizer. This corresponds to other so-called NPK fertilizers with NPK 5-1-2. Do not ever allow it to touch the food producing part of your plant. Better to soak the soil around the plant. The best practice is to wiz on your compost I think. Give it a year to be cleaned up by the microbes in your compost bin. OK, enough about that.

In my next letter I will tell you how to brew your own EM1. It's a little complicated but if you are on a budget like I am, it will save you money and EM1 is a garden game-changer!

Now if I could only figure out what to do with these Himalayan Blackberry canes….

The nastiest weeds in your garden are actually garden gold !

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The Dirt on Dirt!