I have several varieties, but my favorite is blue java/ice cream. grows well here, and it's not one you can get in stores. Mysore is a smaller sweet banana but It tends to be more cold sensitive and doesn't do as well. Goldfinger is productive and was developed to become a commercial variety so isn't much different than what you can buy. Saba are said to be the best tasting plantains, mine do very well and when ripened on the tree can be eaten like dessert bananas ( but we don"t). Kru is said to be very good but mine haven't done well, seem to be more cold sensitive also. the punch line is that if you, or anyone else, lives close enough to pick them up, I can give you pups of saba, ice cream and goldfinger. I also will have a couple monzano, cardaba. e-mail me. I check it every two or three days. I live close to 91-605

I haven't actually hooked up my "outdoor shower" yet but I kinda have plans to when other things are not more pressing. Anyway, I've set up an outdoor kitchen space and I got a couple food grade hoses to run from the house water supply out to a utility sink I set up so I don't have to run to the house for water for canning and such. (I'm lucky I'm on well water) What sort of roof surface are you going to be using for the rainwater collection? And how will you make sure you can wash that roof off before you collect that water to shower with (ya know, bird poo, road dust, pollen and all that might not be so great to wash with.) Don't get me wrong, I like using rain water but I'm not sure I want to bathe with the stuff that comes off my roof since I see what collects in my rain barrel. Anyway, so you want to look into rain water collection and ways to wash the roof before you start collecting the water and perhaps a way to filter the water a little too. Then you want a way to heat some of the water, for that you might want to study up on Solar Thermosiphon water heating, for that you will probably need a way to support the hot water tank above the solar heating tubing or panels and you will probably also need some sort of pressure pump to provide water pressure for the cool water system that will also keep the hot water tank topped up as you use the hot water from it as well. Ya still sure you don't want to hook into mains water for the outdoor shower? A camp shower hooked to the rain barrel is probably the easiest way. I think colman makes something that will even hook to a propane tank for the heating part of it and has a little pressure pump or something like that, not sure as I haven't really researched it myself lately. Good Luck, showering outdoors is so nice in this climate.

It may be helpful to know what the decor of your home is and what the sun/shade conditions of the courtyard are. Also, does enclosed = covered? Go for lush accessories and furniture in the courtyard that match or complement the interior both color and stylewise, no plastic chairs or pots. Add a few plants in the house, especially in the entryway. Depending on lighting; you could do any number of plants in the courtyard. Crouton, snake plant, ferns, impatiens, herbs, begonias, jade plant, pothos, rubber tree for starters.

Thanks for the added info, Thrifter. DoGooder has given you some good suggestions. Be sure to check on specific varieties of fern you find at the nursery to see if they would do well in wet conditions, since some types like it drier. Ligularia is another plant that will do well in damp shade. Cranberries make a great groundcover to weave between other plants in damp shade, though their flowers aren't too noticeable. The berries, though not profuse, are beautiful, and won't harm your kids if they pop one in their mouths. Blueberries will grow in the areas with at least a few hours of sun by the fence, and the more sun, the more berries. Siberian Iris will grow in quite a bit of shade and are perfectly happy in quite wet sites. The more sun, the more flowers. They will give you a grassy effect after they are done their spring bloom. Plants you might want to avoid from PixieLou's article: If your kids may eat stuff in the yard, foxglove is toxic and Smilacina/false Solomon's seal has berries. Impatients has a blight or disease of some kind that has decimated most plantings of the regular impatients over that last year or two. You probably also want to avoid beach roses (rugosa roses) since they are large and have fairly wicked thorns and your yard is small, so you want to have room for the kids to play without getting into thorns.