The Plant I Wish Every Gardener Would Grow: Yarrow
If I could convince every gardener to grow just one plant, it would be yarrow (Achillea millefolium).
It may not have the most showy blooms or the most dramatic presence, but few plants work as hard as yarrow. It is beautiful, incredibly climate-resilient, supports an astonishing diversity of wildlife, and can benefit the entire garden. Whether you are growing vegetables, creating a pollinator garden, wanting to grow backyard medicine, or simply looking for ways to use fewer chemicals and have a lower-maintenance landscape, then yarrow deserves a place in your garden.
Yarrow is one of the best plants you can grow for biodiversity. Its broad, flat clusters of flowers provide an easy landing platform for many different pollinators, including native bees, butterflies, hoverflies, beetles, and beneficial wasps. Unlike flowers that only support a handful of species, yarrow attracts an incredible range of insects throughout the growing season. This diversity creates a healthier, more balanced ecosystem in your garden.
Even better, many of these insects are not just pollinators. They are also predators that help keep common garden pests under control.
One of the greatest reasons I recommend yarrow in nearly every garden is its ability to attract beneficial insects.
Lady beetles, bruchids, lacewings, parasitic wasps, hoverflies, assassin bugs, and predatory beetles are all drawn to its easily accessible nectar. Many of these insects spend part of their lives feeding on aphids, caterpillars, scale insects, mites, thrips, whiteflies, and other common garden pests.
That's why instead of reaching for pesticides, growing yarrow helps establish a natural food web where predators and prey remain in balance.
As our climate changes, choosing water-wise plants has never been more important. Yarrow has deep roots that allow it to access moisture well below the soil surface. Once established, it requires very little supplemental watering and continues flowering long after many other perennials have wilted. This makes it an excellent choice for xeriscapes, boulevard plantings, rock gardens, and even a great drought-tolerant, low-maintenance lawn option.
Across much of North America, yarrow is a native plant species. On Vancouver Island, our native variety is called Achillea millefolium var. occidentalis
Because yarrow evolved alongside our local wildlife, it provides ecological value that many ornamental plants simply cannot match. Native insects recognize it as a food source, and birds benefit from the abundance of insects it attracts. Including yarrow helps reconnect fragmented habitats and strengthens local ecosystems one garden at a time.
Because of it's ecosystem benefits, yarrow is also a wonderful companion plant in vegetable gardens and food forests. By attracting pollinators and predatory insects, it can improve pollination of nearby crops while naturally reducing pest populations. It grows well alongside kale, tomatoes, peppers, squash, herbs, fruit trees, and berry bushes.
Yarrow is also a natural dynamic accumulator, with deep root systems that mine nutrients such as potassium, calcium, and phosphorus from deeper soil layers. As leaves die back or are used as mulch, these nutrients are gradually returned to the soil surface where other shallow-rooted plants can access them. Many gardeners also add yarrow leaves to compost piles because they break down quickly and contribute valuable minerals.
Yarrow has been used medicinally for thousands of years. Its botanical name, Achillea, comes from the Greek hero Achilles, who, was said to have used the plant to help treat wounds during battle.
Traditionally, yarrow has been valued for supporting wound healing, reducing minor bleeding, easing digestive discomfort, and encouraging perspiration during colds and fevers. While modern herbal medicine still recognizes many of these traditional uses, anyone considering medicinal use should first learn proper identification and consult a qualified healthcare professional.
Even if you never harvest it, there is something special about growing a plant with such a long and fascinating relationship with people.
I know yarrow can come in many beautiful colours and cultivars, but if you're choosing yarrow for an ecological or pollinator garden, I recommend seeking out the true native variety rather than one of the many ornamental cultivars. Cultivars are often selected for traits people enjoy such as unusual flower colours, or larger blooms, but these changes often do not benefit wildlife and can actually reduce their positive impact. The straight native species retains the characteristics that local insects have evolved alongside and is the best choice when biodiversity is your priority. Native yarrow also tends to be the most resilient and well-adapted to local growing conditions and doesn't risk having a negative impact via cross-pollination on natural landscapes.
Yarrow is the definition of a low-maintenance plant. It thrives in poor soils, tolerates neglect, and generally performs better when gardeners avoid overwatering or excessive fertilizing. And although no plant is completely immune to browsing, yarrow's aromatic foliage makes it far less appealing to deer and rabbits than many common garden plants. Yarrow provides months of flowers, supports pollinators, feeds beneficial insects, improves biodiversity, tolerates drought, enriches soil, offers medicinal value, and asks for very little in return. Few plants deliver so many benefits from such a small footprint, so if you're thinking of adding a new perennial to your garden this year, I hope you'll consider making it yarrow.
