Ok here are some of the native plants that you should have luck with in the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys. These plants probably will make it with a little extra winter water if your rainfall drops below 15 inches, or you do not have a neighbor that waters. In town, with all the sod lawns, your plants should do fine after the first summer with nothing more than hosing the foliage off occasionally to remove smog.
Do not use drip irrigation! Your soils are high in salts and drip makes it much worse and drowns most native plants.
Mulch! Use either rock, shredded cedar or shredded redwood mulch. That also helps with the salt problem and also helps maintain moisture.
Do not amend the soil. These are not veggies.
Do not fertilize, your soils are already too fertile for most native plants.
There are a lot of other native plants that will work in your area, try mynativeplants.com for more.