Bill Siemer grew up on a farm in Lassen County, played basketball at Shasta JC, went to Vietnam, became a newspaper reporter and then a lawyer and now considers himself a champion of the story that needs to be told. He lives on the bank of the river and takes pictures.
Set up an outdoor water misting system to cool down your little back patio area. Maybe on a small trellis or on taught wires connecting to 4 posts. That’ll keep it cool and help your plants.
Calscape.org is a wonderful resource for researching what grows best in the area. You can search by sun needs, blooming seasons, deciduous vs evergreen etc. It's mostly native plants, which is great for the mantis and your water bill. ;)