:ciao: Rosebud, we can't put anything in the ground around here 'till mid-late May. The sunporch is a saviour.
I have 22 Banana trees in pots that I over-wintered in my upstairs, 16 of those will go in the ground and grown as annuals, the rest will stay in large planters to supply me with pups for next season. I've been growing banana trees here for 4-5 years. They grow to 10-12 feet in pots (16-20 in the ground) then in the fall I cut them to about 6inches and bring them inside for the winter, when they go back outside they're around 3' tall.
This years project will be @wave petunias, I saved seeds from last years plants and figure I'll just sprinkle some seeds in all my outdoor planters and watch them take over, humming birds love them, and they smell good.
You peeps in legal land are so fortunate, You can stick a Satori on your patio and only worry about mother nature and not the law. If I lived there my yard would look like 4U's, I'd have a weed jungle.