Stinging Nettle

Notes:

In April of 2011 I went with my girlfriend at the time to her cousin's place near Quadra Island. One day we had picked and cooked nettles. I had encountered them a couple times as a child when I was wandering through the woods and felt as though I had suddenly been stung by many many bees. I was really excited over the prospect of eating them, they were delicious. Amazingly, as we returned home and were walking in to the yard we noticed a single nettle plant growing in the garden, it has since spread and formed a thick patch. They are the first thing to grow each year and are soon caked with aphids. I try to harvest what I can before they flower(Since they are then no longer good to eat) then leave them as bait for the aphids to keep them off my other plants. This in turn attracts the ladybugs who eat the aphids, then multiply. Today was the first time I had seen so few live aphids on my nettles this late in the year, they've been decimated by the ladybugs. Once in a while I cut the stocks, strip the leaves and put them in one bucket, the stocks in another bucket, fill them with water and let them rot. The leaves form a sort of compost tea which is great fertilizer for the garden, then I strip the fibers from the woody stocks. The fibers are long, strong, soft and can be spun like wool into thread. I've read that nettle is the oldest known fiber used to make clothing. I have a collection of it, but have yet to find a good means of spinning it, short of drop spindle.