:: achillea millefolium ::

What a can of worms is yarrow?

For starters there is this list from wikipedia of all the names yarrow has had...

arrowroot, bad man's plaything, bloodwort, carpenter's weed, death flower, devil's nettle, eerie, field hops, gearwe, gordaldo, herbal militaris, hundred leaved grass, knight's milefoil, knyghten, milefolium, milfoil, millefoil, noble yarrow, nosebleed, old man's mustard, old man's pepper, plumajillo, sanguinary, seven year's love, snake's grass, soldier, soldier's woundwort, stanchweed,  thousand-leaf, thousand seal, woundwort, yarroway, yerw. 

...and I bet there are more!

The botanical name Achillea comes from the Greek God Achilles, who is said to have taken the plant into battle to help staunch the blood of wounds.

In biodynamic agriculture yarrow is the main ingredient in the preparation 502, which is added to compost heaps in order to bring light forces into the soil. Yarrow has a connection with sulphur and Venus forces and attracts trace elements important for fertility.

There are so many uses for the plant - herbal, edible, companion planting, agriculture and in many different cultures.

 My relationship with yarrow is one of mixed feelings.  

It is so pretty and delicate and yet a complete pain in the proverbial.  With deep-reaching roots it has a very firm hold in the garden - this makes it great for erosion control (introduced in NZ for this) and also mines up minerals from deeper in the soil - useful for stock feed and compost making. It also makes it nearly impossible to remove, if it's not in the most convenient spot for it to put roots down like this -as it is in our garden...it sits right next to a vegetable bed and so I'm constantly in battle with it, whilst admiring it...