First native garden planting has some fails.. Weeds, gophers, and dogs!

Oof. Well I spent a lot of time on my garden - took classes, prepped, planted all the plants, etc.. Between my dog and gophers and other plants it's a bit of a mess!

• I showed my yard to the teacher I was taking a class with and they said it seemed like little weeds so didn't really need to be prepped. I didn't think about how dry it was so of course once I started watering/raining came and now it's overgrown with oxalis, some grass, and a bulb (was waiting to see if it would flower but it's about 2 ft high now with no flowers).
• Between my dog digging in the yard and gophers we've lost a few plants - all 8 yarrow, a larger plant (can't remember which one.. either ca fuschia, penstemon, or ceanothus), and who knows what else. I can't believe I didn't put them in cages!
• CA grapes look dead but I'm not sure if they just went dormant right after I planted them. I did break a branch and it was green. They never grew enough to attach to the fence, though.

It's looking like quite a mess right now. I'm wondering if there's any use in trying to pull all the weeds? Also should I dig plants up and put in cages while soil is still soft/they're small?

Positive: some plants are looking really nice, and the poppies from seed are growing in a few spots! Also the mugwort has started spreading in one spot. Was surprised because I never water there but we have had a few rains recently.