Allotments 4 All

Finally had cause to use some this year and had the same results two years running so feel I can let on - it might help some of you more sensitive types.  I have a big full size plastic rubbish bin that I use.  Two years ago, I ran out early Autumn and made a fresh batch of which very little got used.  It over wintered and the following year hardly stank - but was still effective.  Thought I would do the same last Autumn and this year, the smell is a lot milder again - so I think a good period once the remnants of vegetation are removed helps lessen the smell.

Laughing my head off here, stinky hands, protective clothing, dustbins on the lawn that need moving.Pauline upchucking as she does it, tasting pig poop,sweating inside plastic clothing in the height of summer, baths full of rotting nettles, and they call this a hobby.... makes me a wee but glad I am this side of the pond or is it going to drift over here ... ;D ;D XX Jeannine

Unfortunately the Gulf stream flows TOWARDS Blighty so any smells that get off the coast will get blown straight back inland again  :o ;D

I don't expect they allow stinging nettle gloop on your posh allotments Jeannine.   And I presume that the wind blows right round the planet so the smell from mine will reach you soon.  ;D ;D

Some of mine has so much nettle in it that it has gone thick.    Actually after about two days before it gets truly smelly and it a clear pee coloured liquid I quite like the smell.    But the main thing is that the plants like it.

And the comfrey stinks even more.

 ;D my it stinks


got to be good for the garden ;D

You mean you can't smell my pee barrel? I thought it was infecting the planet.

No not yet Robert, pehaps I can forego that pleasure.. and by the way Digeroo, we ain't got no nettles on our posh lotties.. no mare's tail, no couch grass, no dandelions..just buttercups on the lawns. :D

XX Jeannine

Maybe those of you that don't understand, just don't have such refined noses as those of us that do. :D
Seriously though, it may include components that some people can smell and some can't, or that smell entirely different depending on your genetic provision as far as taste receptors go. For an example of this phenomenon, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenylthiocarbamide - and potassium chloride, used in low-sodium salt, is another example. (Tastes of nothing - or tastes bitter - or tastes absolutely vile, depending on your taste bud genetics.)

I'm with Pauline, it makes me feel sick. I know pig nuts is pretty strong, but it doesn't smell of *dead* things. Nettle goop is more reminiscent of a rotting sheep carcass... :-s  (Something I'm familiar with, from growing up in Mid-Wales - ahhh, the fragrant countryside...)

Thanks for all the replies - sorry I've been slow to get back to this thread, I was away on holiday for a few weeks.
I'm going to take the suggestion for burying nettles in planting holes - much more acceptable!

Reading this with interest as I'm just about to make my first batch with the nettles I've harvested from my new plot...not sure I want to now  ;D

...I'm wondering if the soil pipe thing Toby did on GW last week would work for nettles as well?