Neil, thank you for the compliment.
What beautiful photos of your passion flower! It looks almost life-like with the water droplets, especially in the second photo!!
I also loved reading about your experiences with companion planting. I'm especially fond of hearing about beneficial insects and birds being invited and welcome in the garden. You mentioned swallows which are very good bug eaters. We happen to have a swallow family nesting under our porch eaves right now, which doesn't bother us much. Especially since they are helping keep the bug population down. Right now there's a second batch of four little hatchlings sitting in the nest, although it seems surprisingly late in the year! It's so hot here in Texas during the summer months; poor little things. We had a chuckle watching them this morning as each baby bird turned around, tail side out, and one by one pooped outside of the nest.
