Passionate about passionfruit

In December I transplanted a little volunteer passion fruit vine that I brought over from the last place we stayed in. It is right alongside the fence and surrounded by stones, as there is a 2 foot edging of stone all along the side of the property. I worried that it might be forgotten, but it does get watered occasionally. Well, I didn't have to worry as the other side of the fence is the neighbours chicken coop....called a chook pen here in Australia! Obviously those roots go deeply and mine up all the good stuff, because the vine has now travelled about 15feet along the fence in each direction and at least that far up the neighbour's happy plant! The plant only really survives about 3 years here, so it is recommended to plant another plant to take over after about two years. I guess I have found the right spot to plant it, and I think I am going to plant a row of comfrey right in front of it - going to get all that chook manure into my garden without having to deal with the chooks! (Well, they do wake us up early in the morning with their clucking, but at least there is no rooster!)

There have been a few fruit forming, but I have somehow missed the flowering, yesterday when I wandered through the garden I saw plenty of flowers. They are really the most beautiful flowers, as you can see.

The fruit too is amazing - much bigger than I have ever seen before, as you can see from the next photo. The way to harvest is to just walk around and pick up the fallen fruit, so it doesn't matter that the vine has grown so high.

these are a few flowering herbs - Thai and regular basil and some dill. The basil is growing around a volunteer cherry tomato plant - supposedly very good companion plants.
I have been getting the coffee grounds from a local coffee shop for the past few weeks. I am just sprinkling it around the garden - it adds nitrogen (and a lovely smell! ) Hubby says it smells much better than some of the other stuff I spread around! I took the owner a bunch of fresh herbs to say thanks and he seemed very pleased. I do love to share the bounty!

One of the best ways to enjoy passion fruit is to scoop out a ripe papaya and fill the centre with passion fruit. my papaya are taking their time ripening, but I am looking forward to that treat in the not too distant future!