What hand tool is best for chopping down nettles

[areia]

now i wouldnt mind one of them, a grass whip whatever next, im liking it

[Becca]

that I like.. looks light and hopefully not too dangerous to me, and reasonably priced too

I tried a strimmer btw .. barely makes a dent in the tall stuff and about 30secs in I'm fed up with the noise and the weight and pick up my shears instead...

[Becca]

I now have a grasswhip (and a few other goodies whilst I was ordering ) wending it's way to me..

[Growem]

Great, hope it proves useful to you!

[Becca]

will let you know.. expecting much satisying nettle destruction in the near future

[Becca]

opps satisfying..

[Mikey]

Sickle or scythe for me dependant on the size of the area. I've used a strimmer in the past but the stems get wrapped around the head far too easily and it's a pain to untie. A brushcutter is best on your strimmer but I wouldn't bother if its less than 25sqm, there's something very therapeutic about cutting it by hand.
Nettles make great fertiliser if you bag them and drop them in your water butt, and the young shoots can be picked and made into nettle soup. They are very popular with the nettle aphid (which only affects nettles), which inturn attracts the hoverfly, so they are not completely without use in a garden.

[Becca]

the area is relatively big, but hopefully getting smaller all the time so I just need to be able to keep chopping them down and composting them and digging what I can so I can keep everything under control.. I did hire a brush cutter for the initial chopdown as the brambles were 10ft+ tall and the nettles were not much shorter but now thats all dealt with I'd rather be able to do a little often rather than it all in one go then watch it grow again.. :O/ I can't see there being a point in the near future where I have absolutely no nettles so I won;t be short of nettle aphids (or hopefully hoverflies.. ) Will see how the grass whip goes and keep my eye out for a sickle (we have a second hand tool guy on the local market so i might be lucky )

[Becca]

The grass whip arrived today and it's brilliant.. whipped my way though most of the nettle/ bramble patches in about 1/2 hour, very satisfying...

[Growem]

Phew! I was slightly nervous that the first time I gave advice on the forum it might not be what you were after. Glad it's worked out for you. Reminds me I have to have another go at the grass around my plot.

[Becca]

bizarrely grass is what it seemed to be least effective on (for me at least..) but very satisfying seeing it decapitate even fairly chunky (but not woody) brambles.. plot looks alot better now and I got to vent the frustration at having lost my cucumbers and beans to the unexpected frost..

[Maf]

has anyone asked what type of soil you grow on ?

If it's light and dry... nettle pulling is so much fun... just be gentle and you can pull huge root runs, with no nasty chemicals at all !

make tea from them or flail your arthritic OH !