I love my in-laws. Really, I do. But when you share a boundary, there's something to be said for a little greenery between you, and that's where my blue passionflower (Passiflora caerulea) comes in.

Every year it races across my fence, covering it in lush foliage and extraordinary blue-and-white flowers, turning what was once an ordinary boundary into a living privacy screen. And when I say it's fast, I mean it is fast. Give it something to climb and it gets to work, scrambling up fences and trellises with startling levels of enthusiasm.

Every spring and summer, mine bursts back into life, quickly transforming a very visible fence into a lush green wall. Which, considering my brother-in-law and his girlfriend live on the other side, is no small thing. Honestly, I genuinely love having them next door... but I also love the fact that this clever passionflower makes it so I no longer feel like we're sharing quite the same garden.

And that's not all, folks!

Why I Let My Passionflower Take Over My Fence Every Summer

Yes, there's another reason I love my passionflower: it is tough. Mine has sailed through heat and drought, carrying on growing while other plants have looked decidedly sorry for themselves. It's deciduous, so it disappears over winter, but every spring it comes roaring back as though nothing happened, ready to cover the fence all over again.

Then there are the fruits! Those bright orange fruits that appear after flowering are another reason I love having the birth month vine for September babies around – and, yes, they're edible when fully ripe (although they're unlikely to become the stars of your fruit bowl).

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My toddler, of course, has developed her own relationship with them. Every time the fruit appears at exactly her height, she methodically squishes every single one she can reach into garden mush.

Honestly, though, it's hard to complain. The passionflower provides the privacy, the bees get the flowers, she gets an extremely satisfying sensory activity, and I get to enjoy one of the hardest-working plants in my garden. Everyone's a winner!

Of course, the passionflower is is a vigorous vine, so it needs something sturdy to climb and the occasional prune if you don't want it wandering absolutely everywhere. Still, though, that's a small price to pay for all the benefits it promises, and that's the magic of it. It isn't just a pretty climber or ; it's a fast-growing privacy screen, a pollinator magnet, an occasional source of edible fruit and a remarkably tough survivor – all wrapped up in one gloriously unruly vine.

And if it happens to blur the boundary between us just enough to make the garden feel a little more peaceful? Well, I wouldn't have it any other way.