How do I hack cheap garden/solar lights to make a remote solar panel array?
Am I missing anything? Is there a piece of equipment I'm overlooking?


Yes. Large solar panels can be bought individually rather than cobbled together from smaller ones. These are designed to feed from the panel as-built rather than having to be modified. Example here.

So what you need to do is find a low voltage garden light system (perhaps one powered by the mains as suggested by @longneck) then replacing its mains voltage converter with a feed from a battery pack charged by the panel. The battery packs could be central or at each light.