I found this site while looking for plants to grow in my "bright shade" in inland SoCA.
http://www.savvygardener.com/Features/shade_gardening.html ""Almost all food crops grow best in sunny locations. Not only do they need full sunlight for good growth, few tolerate root competition from trees. Cool-season salad vegetables such as lettuce, spinach and radishes may benefit from light shading through the heat of the summer. Beans, beets, broccoli, cabbage, kohlrabi, peas, potatoes, rhubarb and turnips will grow in light shade but not produce as large a crop as plants growing in full sun."" You may want to devote a full day [each month] to charting the sun exposure for each 1/2 hour of the day on your patio. You Texicans get more heat than we do and I think heat in bright shade might equal full sun. As someone mentioned the reflected heat from the building may make things too hot for some plants. I've had good luck with tomatoes growing uder a plum and avocado .... in bright shade with full sun in the afternoon. They actually did better than 'maters' grown in full sun. The whole thing is a gamble ... good luck! | 
