ou may want to have this plant in your garden. Some popular uses include:
Edible Spring Food
You can eat purple dead nettle fresh, use it in pesto, or sprinkle it in salads. The fresh leaves can taste like a cross between overcooked green beans and spinach, so you may want to use them sparingly. Also, watch out for ants as they like to hide inside of the plant. When you pick it, make a point to turn it upside down and tap it to dislodge any ants before you bring it inside.
Steeping dried plants or herbs in oil will create a nice infused oil that you can then use to create lotions, balms, salves, and much more. To make an infused oil using dead nettle, you’ll need twice as much oil as a crumbled, dried plant. You:
- Fill your glass canning jar with ½ or ¼ dried, crumbled up dead nettle plant. You can also mix in other herbs like yarrow or calendula, depending on your end product goals.
- Fill the jar to the top with the oil you picked out and stir it. Apricot kernel oil will give you a slightly lighter feel, but sunflower or olive oil can both work well for most skin types. It’s also possible to mix oils.
Melt & Pour Soap Colorant
Dead nettles will lend a greenish-yellow or pale green color when you infuse it with a meltable soap base. To do this, you’ll need a few items, including:
- 1/4 tsp water
- 1/8 cup chopped fresh purple dead nettle
- 4 oz white melt and pour soap base
Put your dead nettle in the bottom of a half-pint container or canning jar, or a similarly-sized heat proof vessel. Add ¼ teaspoon of water and fill the jar using a soap base. If you want to jumpstart the infusing process, you can microwave your jar for 20 seconds until the soap starts melting. Next, put your jar down into a smaller saucepan with a few inches of water. Cover the jar with a lid and let it infuse for 25 to 35 minutes, or until the soap starts to take on a green coloring.
Remove the jar from the heat and pour the soap base through the strainer into your silicone soap molds. Once it cools and hardens, remove it from the mold and wrap it in an airtight plastic wrap until you’re ready to use it.
Poultice for Insect Bites or Small Wounds
If you’re out in the yard or garden and you get bit by an insect like a mosquito and it starts to itch, dead nettle can help. All you have to do is chew up leaves of certain plants and apply them as a poultice to ease the itching, sting, or slow the bleeding. Plantain leaves are very commonly used as a green weed that’s great for this, as is yarrow. You can add purple dead nettle to this list. All you have to do is grab a few leaves, chew them, and apply the leaf pulp to the area.
Stinging nettle is used to prepare people for seasonal allergies. Purple dead nettle isn’t the same as stinging nettle, but it’s commonly used to help alleviate your allergy symptoms. One way to use this dead nettle is to make a tea, but a tincture has a much shorter storage life. To make it, you’ll combine ¼ cup of dried nettle leaves with ½ of a cup of high-proof vodka. Shake it well and store it in a cupboard for a few weeks before you strain it, and make sure it’s out of direct light in a dry, cool area.
You should only need a few drops of this tincture at a time to help with allergies and inflammation, and you can combine it with local raw honey to make it easier to take. If you have medical issues, or you’re nursing or pregnant, you should check with your doctor before you use it.
Tinctures have a long history or use, and you can use them for everything from helping with inflammation to alleviating allergy symptoms.
Dead Nettle Pests and Diseases
This plant is usually pretty low maintenance, but snails and slugs can bother it as they thrive in the shaded, moist growing conditions. Let the soil dry out between watering sessions to discourage them from coming around.
Edema and Drowning
The most common disease gardeners run into with dead nettles is edema and drowning. This is caused by poorly draining soils and too much water. You can improve heavy clay-based soils with manure, compost, and peat moss before you plant your dea