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Be nice to nettles week

This week is be nice to nettles week. Mummy sat with me yesterday and we thought about all the ways nettles are a good thing.

Most people don’t like them because they sting, but it’s not their fault. Our neighbour has just sprayed hers with chemicals to kill them. We let ours grow though because they mind their own business down by the fence and we know that they are good plants, not bad ones.

Here are some good things about nettles

• They are free food with lots of vitamins and minerals. They have lots of iron which is for healthy blood and lots of calcium for bones and teeth. You can put them in soup or use them like spinach. They are good for arthritis too.
• They make nice tea!
• Birds like them and they eat the seeds
• Ladybirds like them and if you have ladybirds in the garden, they eat all your aphids. Ladybirds look pretty too.
• Some people use nettles to make fibre, like linen for clothes. And you can use nettle juice to colour clothes too; as a natural dye.
• You can put them in the compost heap to help it rot down quicker
• You can make nettle tea and use it like a cup of tea for your plants. That saves you having to buy fertilisers and other chemicals and the plants like it - it makes them healthy.
• Butterflies like nettles and butterflies are pretty