We raised Carolina wrens in a pig flower pot which sat on the deck railing. They chose this pig with the tough thorned aloe vera plant for 3 years running. To sort of hide the nest from our movements, I located the tall pot of bougainvillea in front of it. The day the fledgelings flew, I always called it WHEN PIGS FLY. They are still hanging around our garden, fussing at us for trespassing, and I still call them the Pig Family. Now we have the second pair of bluebirds in a nestbox in the hosta garden. They have babies in there and when I am close enough I hear them begging for food. I sure hope they fledge before the weather gets too too hot. Last year the pair abandoned the 2nd round of babies because it got too hot. This year I spray the area around noon to 2pm to cool it down. It helps a lot. I also have out water bowls and birdbaths, but the favorite way to shower for all the birds seems to be rubbing on the wet leaves of the peach and camellia trees while the sprinkler is running. Or the doves bathe on top of the umbrellas; Water is a prime concern and I have containers of it out everywhere....which I refresh daily to avoid mosquitos.

Depends, I think, on whether you want to swing parallel to the exterior of the house or at right angles. At right angles unless the swing was at the very end of the porch, you'd need enough space to walk around it comfortably, and be eye sweet. If parallel I think 3 feet in front and the same behind, though you could probably get away with having one of those less. So figure with a 2 foot deep (front to back swing) you'd need a porch of 3+ 2+ 3 or eight feet. I think you could get away with 7, particularly if the swing was out at the end of the porch and you didn't have to walk past it to get somewhere. Nice to think about a porch swing on a day like today. It's in the teens here and I'm up on my porch roof trying to hang gutter! Tedious project, because every day I spend half the available daylight chipping the ice off the porch roof so I can move around safely and set the ladder to reach the second story fascia board. I hope in another day (two, at the worst), I'll be done. Then I can rip the blasted porch down ... I have been longing to do that for as long as I've lived here and finally wore my DH down. Porches have their places, I suppose, but not on my southern exposure! I'm hoping it won't take me more than a week to tear the 8 by 38 foot beast down. Molly~

Thanks guys, I kind of thought that was the problem. Are there any other free storage sites that allow larger images? I forgot I had storage on Netscape, after resizing a little I tried it there.A little better, but still not as clear as original. Even with sharpening. Thanks for looking. carol

I always need to visualize things. Try to find/borrow a bench seat, chairs, or even large boxes that are 5' wide to see how it looks. If you picked a swing that was less heavy looking it could work I would think. Can't you also just move the hooks? For installing: http://www.swingplans.com/hanging_a_porch_swing.html Here's a few pictures of swings. 2 are less heavy looking.