Kind of a newby, yes, I could tell. But some of us like to help folks like you. Where do you live? Big Bear? La Jolla? Heber? Victorville? It makes a big difference in SoCal. How do you have the sprinklers set? How often and for how long? You're going to need to test the sprinklers to see how long it takes to apply 1 inch of water. Put some tuna or cat food cans in the yard and turn on the water. Time how long it takes to fill all the cans. Remember that number. Can you post some pictures of your grass(es) and weeds? It would be rare if your soil had a lot of clay in it. It would not be rare at all if it had a lot of salts in it that act like clay. Only a good soil test can tell you that. I'm not suggesting that you need a soil test, I'm just saying you can't be too sure of the soil content by what others tell you. Whether this is salvageable and how depends on where you live and what you have. Seeding can be tricky, but we can help with that, too. If you do it wrong, you'll get bad results every time. There are a few ways to do it right and a lot of ways to do it wrong.

Beautiful pictures, thanks for sharing! :D #1: Lotus corniculatus and an Echium, probably E. vulgare. The smaller, yellow-flowered one is a Trifolium, there are lots of similar species. #2: The daisy is Leucanthemum vulgare, the reddish one is another Trifolium, most likely T. pratense. #3: Sempervivum arachnoideum. #4: The "buttercup" could either be a buttercup (Ranunculus), or a Potentilla of some sort. The hairy rosettes belong to the Sempervivum; the white star-shaped flowers are Silene, possibly S. rupestris. The slender, fiery red spikes are sorrels (Rumex), and the purple flower in the lower left corner might be a Nepeta. The greyish-green leaves in the center belong to a Hieracium. Do you have a bigger picture we could look at?

Top photo is a member of the Orchid Family, Goodyera pubescens (Rattlesnake Plantain). I believe you are correct about the bottom photo, appears to be Monarda didyma (Scarlet Bee Balm) Both are showy Natives, found in many locations throughout the SE. Good photos!

Dactylifera are common in commercial plantings in California. When palms get too old or too tall or when their productivity drops in commercial date plantations, farmers will replace them with younger palms and sell the old palms in bulk to developers and palm brokers. All of these end up in parking lots in shopping centers and in other public places. It could very well be dactylifera.