You don't say if this area is viewable from anywhere, or whether you want to be able to walk through the planting area for access, or where you are in the Bay Area. A bit more information would be useful to give a more informed answer. There are lots of plants that will grow in full shade, and Sunset Western Garden Book Encylopedia lists many. I would list completely different choices depending on the answers to the questions above. My assumption would be that you don't want things that get too big and woody(and wide, if you only have 2 feet of width between your house wall and/or fence/walk. I'd be thinking of vines or espaliered wall plants to stay narrow, with an understory of foundation plants at the base of the wall. Abutilons or Star Jasmine work well as espaliers, and things like Cala lilies, Foxtail Asparagus Ferns, Cyperis textilis, Chamaedorea microspadix, Cineraria, Billbergia nutans, Acorus gramineus 'Ogon' would all work well in a narrow shaded area. Cultivars of the Sasanqua Camellia also lend themselves to being espaliered against a wall. Annuals for color might include Impatiens or Wax Begonias, or Cyclamen in winter.

What, no Cali gardeners out there? ;-) Beans, maybe, if you plant a short DTM bush variety... but no guarantees. Peas, certainly. When I gardened near Palo Alto, I planted my Fall crop of peas in August. I grew snow peas (can't remember the variety) and "Green Arrow" shelling peas. I was going to suggest that you try this question in the California Gardening forum... but when I checked it out, there wasn't much discussion of vegetables there.

L. sinense is present in cultivation on the west coast. Yet Jacobson, Wild Plants of Greater Seattle - Second Edition (2008) does not mention it (5 other species of Privet are listed by him as occurring wild there). However seedling asked about looks like L. japonicum anyway. (Jacobson (same) says this one "reseeds" in Seattle).

Can't speak to other people's experiences, but here's my two cents given there are not many reviews out there for this company. Please note this is an edited post, as Plants Express reached out to me after my initial post. I purchased almost a $1000 worth of hedges (about 12-14 in total) from Plants Express. Two died within the first month (likely due to stress of shipping) and I received a refund pretty quickly upon sending them photos. A little over a year later, a number of them did not fare well. It should be noted that the ones that did survive are doing well. I'd found this thread and came on here to simply express my disappointment and share my experience. While I had originally mentioned the customer service was good and I took no issues with it; what I did not expect was the incredible level of professionalism and superb customer service Plants Express has shown. Not only did Mike the president of the company personally respond (see below), which I personally feel is huge in this day and age. They also took the time to track down my order details and reached out to me personally on behalf of Mike to offer to make things right. Needless to say, very few companies have shown this level of customer service and professionalism in my lifetime. It's a rare thing, and as such I rescind anything negative I had to say, as these actions speak volumes. I still take some issue with the website's user experience, but it's something that can be improved and does not reflect the level of excellent service Plants Express provides it's customers. Given Plants Express' commitment to providing superior customer service, I would have no hesitation recommending them.