So the next day we went outside and raided the weed and nettle filled garden bed we hadn't touched since we moved in so there was plenty to choose from! Lots of chickweed, thistles and an abundance of stinging nettles too. We decided to do 2 batches one a mix of everything and two one of just nettle and after its sat for a week I'm going to open them up and give them a stir and I think I might add some sheep poo to the mixed batch. Mmm Its going to smell good huh!
Ok so here's what you will need:
-bucket or drum preferably with a good fitting lid to stop the stench escaping and help with fermentation
-weeds
-water
Seriously that's all you really need, I used a few extras though:
-gloves and secateurs if dealing with nettles
-weight to hold weeds down under the water/liquid
So all you do is fill your bucket up with your weeds of choice and then once full fill with water, set aside, place you weight if using one on top of the weeds to hold under the water/liquid and place you tight sealing lid on top because it will get smelly plus it will help with the fermentation.
That's it! It's really that simple! I was so excited to know its so easy to make a totally natural liquid fertilizer just out of the weeds in my garden!
So its coming up to a week since I put the brew together so I'm going to open them up on the weekend and give them a stir and add some sheep poo to the mixed weed batch then chuck the lids back on and again in a week give another stir and after then it should be about ready, from what I have read it takes about 3-4 weeks for the weeds to break down.
Once ready you strain off the liquid from the solids and there you have your liquid concentrate and you throw the solids into the compost but just be aware that any seeds present may still remain viable even after the fermentation.
I'm also not sure on the ratio of the weed tea brew concentrate to water but once complete but I will update on all of this in Part 2 (possibly 3) of this blog post which will be coming up in the next week or so.
