
World Nature Conservation Day is observed on July 28 across the world to raise awareness about protecting the natural resources. Nature is facing huge problems like deforestation, illegal wildlife trade, conventional intensive farming, loss of biodiversity, pollution, etc. Everyone must promote environment-friendly activities in their daily life to lead a Green Lifestyle. Together, we can make an effective change for a cleaner, greener future where we help nature and nature helps us.
“Nature doesn’t need people – people need nature; nature would survive the extinction of the human being and go on just fine, but human culture, human beings, cannot survive without nature.” ~ Harrison Ford

Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) is a very popular herbal ingredient in natural cosmetics. It contains a lot of minerals and vitamins (A and E) that are essential in the health of the skin, hair and nails. You can find nettle soap, nettle shampoo, nettle face mask, and even nettle nail oil in the natural cosmetic market. The internet is filled with homemade nettle product recipes if you want to make your own beauty care products. You can reduce your ecological footprint if you reduce your artificial, unhealthy chemicals that would harm the environment. With this, you lower your plastic waste too!

There is a complicated connection net between species – an ecological interdependence. Nettle supports over 100 species of insects, including butterflies and moths as a food source. Sir David Attenborough has called on gardeners to plant a wild flower meadow and cultivate a nettle patch to help butterflies struggling to survive the wet summer in the UK.

Nettle is among the major sources of green plant material consumed in the field by the snails. They all know that nettle is tasty and full of nutrients. The presence of stinging fibers on nettle acts as a defense against many grazing animals, creating a comfortable habitat for our beneficial friends, some of whom are pollinators. The community of organisms depending on nettle is very large. Just think of all the predatory insects, spiders, amphibians and birds which take advantage of this feast.
Let’s plant nettle in our gardens to help nature!
