Besides the hardy vines others will tell you about-you might try the new Sun Parasol Mandevilla's. In pink,red,white.Some are dwarf in leaf and flower,growing habit others-and you can tell by the more robust pot growth,will cover more area,but are never big vines. Planted all around that palm they like the part shade. Not expensive.You can find them at very low cost at the home improvement stores. I have had them bloom near all year...and if they do stop they are among the first to bloom in early spring. Buy ten and impress the neighbors. Hardy to 20f. Much better where it doesn't go below 32f but a very few nights a year.

Giardinierven, I agree with you for the most part on garden lighting. It does not get cold here at night, however, and I do have seasonal outside entertainment We Americans love our cookouts and backyard get-togethers. It's a tradition that began in the early days of this country when everyone got together to help one another build a house, or a barn, or a church, or dig a well. They got together to plant their crops and later to help one another harvest them. The women worked hard cooking the food to feed everyone while the men worked hard with the community project. It continued on through the pioneers days and on into the early 20th century. It still occurs in farming communities and some religious communities today. Afterwards they celebrated what they had accomplished together. They had a lot of fun at these gatherings. So it has become traditional to Americans to gather together with good food and good fun outdoors in our back yards and gardens. I have solar lamps out by my fish pond too, to light up the paths. If I need to go out at night I carry a flashlight (torch). On moonlit nights, the garden is well-lit and I do enjoy strolling through my fragrant gardens by moonlight. If I am entertaining outside at night, I have a patio light and for low-cost lighting that adds a bit of romance and sparkle, I string up white Christmas lights. They look pretty on small potted trees too. To conserve our electrical usage, we disconnected our outside power pole backyard light provided by our power company. It burned day and night and was so wasteful. We only turn on lights that we are using. We don't leave any lights on to burned continuously. I use the energy saver light bulbs everywhere, even in my greenhouse. Of course, I live a more humble lifestyle than probably do many of you, based on what I have seen through the posted photos of your homes and gardens, so this is suffice for me. Outdoor garden lighting is very dramatic and lovely and can add to the beauty of gardens for the more elegant homes. I do think however, that we Americans need to change some of our grand ways and greatly cut our extravagant uses of water and power or we won't have a planet home or gardens. I am sure there are solar-powered lighting systems out there you can find to use rather than those that use precious electricity generated by the fossil fuels of oil and coal. Good hunting for the right system. ~Annie Earth Day Every Day

Crepe myrtles will look really nice there especially in a few years when they get large. The only thing I dont like about crepe myrtles by sidewalks is there flowers will make a huge mess when it rains. I saw some in florida and since they reliably get rain everyday in the summer there, the sidewalk under the crape myrtle was covered in flower petals. Still a very nice tree (one of my favorites) and its great symbol of the south. Good luck!

So, what you are saying is that homeowners have asked for transformers that can be mounted outdoors? That may be but I am not sure there is that much customer feedback in the transformer marketplace from homeowners. I ended up buying a transformer that is rated for being mounted indoors or outdoors and mounted it indoors mainly because I had feeds going 3 sides of my house and the conduits were aready installed into the house. There were very specific requirements for installation of the transformer indoors such as clearances, mounting on non-combustible surface, etc. What puzzles me is what in the construction of a transformer would cause it to be hazardous to be mounted indoors if it was only rated for outdoor use. To me, it seems only the clearances required around it for heat dissipation and being mounted on a non-combustible surface and not near a combustible surface would be the main requirements for mounting indoors. Can anyone shed light on this? What exactly is different about an outdoor and indoor transformer that limit where it is installed (other than a rating that says "Don't do it" from some agency)? (no pun intended)