Pat Welsh has some great videos for California gardeners.

Good comment about coconut palm... as tropical as many of those palms are, it is a testament to how difficult it is to grow a coconut in California, as he cannot. However, he does have a Borassus flabilefer, a species nearly on par with the coconut in terms in impossibility to grow in California... however his is over 15 years old and only 3' tall... and looks terrible. But it's alive. Maybe he should try again to grow a coconut... maybe in just the right spot...

indeed he has, and has a few struggling plants (no photos of them) that have survived for years, but obviously not happy and very sad looking. Coconuts just can't be grown in California with the exception of some very warm, protected sandy soil areas... predicting which areas is difficult, but around a body of water is useful for heat protection, and against a south or southwest facing wall is almost essential. Even the healthiest coconut, growing in Newport Beach, is probably over 20 years old and a stunted version of what it should look like.

Have you tested the soil pH? It may not be as basic as you think. And most plants are adapted to range of pH - they may well prefer more acidic soil but that doesn't mean they can't grow in more basic soils, especially when given proper care. My sister lives just outside Laguna Beach and her courtyard garden is very shady - she grows the usual assortment - hydrangeas, camellias, hostas, ferns, gardenia, small azaleas and liriope. And she has bamboo in containers. Using cottonseed meal to amend the soil before planting (or peat or sulfur) will help to increase soil acidity and fertilizing with a formulation developed for acid loving plants will help to maintain acidity. And there are a number of California native plants that are well adapted to shade conditions and as natives, should be quite tolerant of a range of CA soils as well. And a good many are quite drought tolerant. Here is a link that might be useful: California natives for shade