Freesia–these are lovely flowers, although they kind of lay down out in the yard. I don’t know if that is the way they are, or if I didn’t plant the bulbs deep enough. Either way, I love the flowers. They have a fresh scent that reminds me of soap–clean, flowery and just a hint of spice. Beautiful! So far the mixed bulb pack has yielded white, purple, red/yellow center, yellow, pink-red and sort of a fuscia with yellow centers.

The rain barrels worked very well even without a gutter system up! Between the two barrels I probably got almost a quarter of a barrel. Used some of the water on my garden this morning. I’ll need to get cinder blocks and raise them up to make it easier to get the water out and we’ll work on gutters this weekend! It’ll be great to have the extra water–assuming it rains!

Best Read of the week: Flash fiction over at Abyss and Apex, a very short story by Desmond Warzel: wikihistory

Well, here they are, all installed:

I got the rain barrels used, almost free–but it cost about 60 dollars to put up gutters, spouts, cinder blocks and replace some of the hosing…so much for my virtually free water. Then there’s the other small item needed…rain! Not a chance today or tomorrow or until next week! You can bring the barrels, but you can’t force the rain!!!

Here’s the freesias outdoors. They are doing very well. I will be getting more of them and installing another flower bed next year!