Kitchen Garden Forum

Afternoon All,

Hopefully somebody can suggest a solution.

I weed killed the lawn just before summer and then rotavated and dug as many weeds as i could up, then weed killed again. I left it a week or so and then seeded the area.

We are now getting a lot of nettles pop up in the new grass. I have been pulling them out and hoping the grass we take over. Can somebody suggest a solution to killing the nettles without killing the grass?

kind regards

James

Nettles won't survive regular lawn mowing.

Agree with Peter. The nettles will die off eventually when mown several times. But in the meantime, I would try to pull them out now. After all, the ground will be soft and you can probably extract them quite easily before they spread by their underground roots.

Dear James,
are these nettles the annual nettles or the perennial sort?

If they are the annual ones then it is probably time you cut the grass as they will not like being mown one little bit. This will keep them at bay until the frosts at which point they will die off and by next summer the grass will out compete them. Do this initial grass cutting on the highest setting that the mower you have will allow.

The perennial sort, alas, will take a bit more removing and may need to be sprayed in the spring with a suitable lawn weed killer to eliminate them. If they are seedlings then continue to pull them as they appear; if the nettles are arising from leftover roots they will be more difficult to get out and you may have to reseed some areas where you have removed them.

Regards Sally Wright.