Thanks for all your responses. My neighbor with a 2 yr old pool has queen palms that I get to enjoy over my fence, and I was planning on those, but guess I will not do it after all. And JayB, I read thru all 16 pages of your build, very nice! I will do some more research based on all the new info. And Suzy, I have about 12 foxtail ferns in my front yard, and they definitely work in our area. One year (2014?), the hard freeze turned some of them all brown, but my lawn service just trimmed them about one inch above ground level, and they came right back in the spring/summer.