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Spring finally has the sun splitting the sky here in Ireland. The winter aconite was very much later this year, as were the wild primroses and my planted daffodils. Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day the weather turned discernibly softer during the days, although the nights can still leave a ground frost.
What really alerted me to how late spring was this year was the non-appearance of the stinging nettles. The upside of stinging nettles is that they are a harbinger of good soil fertility. The downside is that they are rampant and will choke the life out of any vegetables you plant.
Another point on the plus side for stinging nettle is that it is very good for you. Folk medicine claims it is a blood purifier(whatever that benefit really means). However, it is natures first green and leafy vegetable of spring. When people were dependent on living completely off their land, the larder was fairly empty by February of anything but root vegetables, and maybe a few cabbages or Brussels sprouts might be left in the vegetable patch if the weather had been clement. The vitamins and minerals in stinging nettle were probably really what benefited folk more than any reputation for blood purification.
In very mild winters the stinging nettles will appear by late January.
They are only just emerging now.
Given the lateness I am casting my beady eye on the wild garlic that grows in a glen less than ten miles from us.
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