If you want to grow a palm garden in the Central Valley, I highly recommend you start by building a canopy first. Both phoenix rupicola and king palms will sustain frost damage every year unless you can get that overhead canopy going. There are a lot of great very tropical looking hardy canopy palms that won't get frost damage such as livistona and brahea. Livistona nitida, decora and australis and brahea clara are excellent palms to start with that have droopy tropical foliage. Parajubaea torallyi is a coconut look alike that is hardy to 20F and will also grow quickly to give you canopy under which you can grow more tender palms. Sabal uresana is another spectacular palm that thrives in the Central Valley. Also, if you want to succeed with dypsis decipiens, try to spend a little more on a larger specimen that already has a well defined heel. That way you will know how deep to plant it, i.e. heel above ground so that it won't rot on you during the damp and cold rainy part of the year when the thule fog chills the valley. Also, those little guys might get fried in the Summer heat, but a bigger specimen has a better chance.

I think a nice gift for you might be a chainsaw-LOL I have done some trimming around here and maybe have one or two more branches to remove,I guess you will get an idea by mid March how the sun is going to track. I think if you have 4-6hrs(esp mid-day)you should be able to grow just about everything you want,did you bring that washy?I think out in the front yard(out of shade and away from house) would be a nice sunny spot for it.Boy,you sure have lots of room to work with and I love the river rocks around the side and back of the house!looks like the front of the house is the best spot for your new cactus garden? I don't know what to tell you about those deer though,they sure are beautiful until they eat your favorite palm!I know they will eat almost anything when they are hungry. It sure will be fun to follow your progress with the new place,happy hunting,err,I mean for your new plants;-)

By "compete" tigerdunes is correct with his answer, but you may be losing a lot of heat through the chimney of the fireplace. There is a lot of variability in how gas fireplaces work. If the fireplace has an open draft, you are sucking warm air out of the house to run it. The best way to supply combustion air is from a point closest to the fireplace. Warm air from the basement is being drawn right up the stairwell. You have quite a stack effect with three floors. Cold air to replace it can either come from leaks if the hot air exits though leaks higher up. It can also cascade down the stirs. Sealing air leaks at all levels might help with that.

Second is some sort of Fabaceae, but it doesn't look familiar from that vantage. Another picture backed up a bit? Last looks like a weedy Veronica. Or a weedy primula if you're lucky. Or a weedy lemon balm. Does it have a fragrance when bruised?