It's difficult to give advice without knowing what you'd like to get out of your garden, and how much maintenance you can/will be able to provide. I can only tell you how I would approach it. I would start in the back since that is where you will be most successful (irrigation), and you don't want to do too much at a time. Decide to do a small area yearly so you can enjoy your work and not get overwhelmed. Think about what you'd like to get out of your backyard. There is a grill there, I think. Does this mean you'd like a hardscape area with pavers where you can put a table/chairs and a shade source (tree, umbrella) to enjoy? This could be an area to enjoy your garden with a beverage while you have your coffee in the morning and while you have a beverage in the evening while you're grilling! Make it bigger than you think in case you have friends over someday, kids, potted plants, etc.. You can plan the outline with landscape paint or lay hoses down so you can get an idea of size and shape. Large, sweeping curves are always more pleasing. Next, decide what trees you'd like to plant. These trees will be the 'bones' of your garden and will set the feel for the rest of your garden. Do you need them for screening? Shade? By sitting area? You have coconut palms in the front, maybe an oak or flowering tree or two in the back? If it drops a lot of stuff, don't put it close to where you will eat. Next, decide if you really want to take care of grass (difficult to have a nice lawn without spending a lot of maintenance, spreading chemicals, pesticides.). Do you have pets/children? What are their needs? In my garden I have a relatively small patch of grass for the dog and maybe future grandchildren, and the rest are mulched, large beds shaped with sweeping curves. They were shaped (visualized), by laying garden hoses down in the shapes we wanted. Next we used an abbreviated form of lasagna gardening (look that up). We put large pieces of cardboard down from appliance and bike stores, and covered with mulch and any organic materials we could come up with. Putting cardboard down will mean you will be able to make beds without spreading roundup or other chemicals, and it will lessen weeds for years, like you wouldn't believe! The less you disturb the soil, the fewer weeds you will have. The more you dig, the more weeds you'll see. You can make your future beds and just leave them mulched and ready to plant when you come across shrubs, palms, trees and perennials you want. No pressure to do it quickly. Take your time. Don't disturb the soil. When you plant, you can just dig a hole for the plant and put it in. The cardboard will disappear in 3-6 months (depending on rain), and if it's still there you can just dig a hole right through it. No problem. Don't remove it. Keep the beds mulched and enjoy your progress slowly without pressure to hurry. If you'd like a veggie garden, Silvia, here on GW is an incredible expert and will let you know what you need to do to have a successful one. She is amazing. Above all, have fun with it and research it, think hard about what your needs are, and take it slow so you can enjoy the process. Congrats on your new home!

Here's what works for mature turf (yours is not yet mature). Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps in the 90s, deep water once per week. With temps in the 80s, deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s, deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 70, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. This deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont, so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall. There are some GardenWeb members from the north reporting that they need to water more frequently in the summer. For your situation I would apply 1/2-inch, twice a week. 20 minutes for newly seeded grass seems far too long. 5 minutes is more like it, especially for 4 times per day. If you have a mix of seed, that means fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, and likely rye grass. Here's the deal on a mixed blend. The seeds germinate at different times. Rye grass seeds germinate in 1 week, fescue in 2 weeks, and KBG in 3 weeks. Thus, if you stop the frequent watering after a week or two, you will likely not get much KBG germination.

You are at least 3 months late in asking for help. Whenever you seeded bermuda was far too early...because NOW is the time to put out bermuda seed. The soil has to be hot to get good bermuda germination. If you seeded in March or April you jumped the gun by that many months. Rototilling should be avoided at all costs for any lawn, but especially for a bermuda lawn. Why? For the very issue you are seeing now with your feet sinking in. This fluffy soil will continue to settle for the next 3 years. All you can do now is try to rearrange the high spots to fill the low spots. Don't add more soil. That causes other headaches. Using a roller might help some, but the soil will continue to settle and become bumpier for years. Why is it worse for bermuda? Because bermuda becomes the most dense when mowed low to the ground. If you have holes and hills in the soil, the mower's wheels will fall into the holes and scalp the grass down to the soil in those spots. A grass that grows best when mowed high, St Augustine for example, doesn't look scalped even when you hit a hole. Mixing bermuda sod with seeded bermuda is another issue to avoid. You already seeded it. Some of that will grow and eventually cover everything. Seeing as it's finally hot enough, it should start spreading quickly. It is not too late to change to St Augustine. A few pieces of sod will spread to cover just like the bermuda does. St Augustine is less tenacious and less aggressive than bermuda, but it will stomp all over what bermuda you have and choke it out. Contrary to popular opinion, St Augustine does not take more water than bermuda. All lawns take a similar amount of water to look nice. The main difference with bermuda is that it will come back from the dead whereas St Aug can die out from total lack of water over a period of months. Fortunately the Houston area does not have that problem. Bermuda can take almost any amount of high nitrogen fertilizer as long as you water it down immediately after application. If you wait until the next day, the morning dew will have dissolved the fertilizer into a very salty brine which can burn the blades. Washing it down with a hose dilutes it to a much less salty brine and washes it down into the soil. I could write essays about the misinformation you have received on this thread. In fact I have, over the years, written such essays. Here are the basics of the Bermuda Bible. Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means 1 inch all at one time. Living in Houston this is already taken care of. Infrequently means no more than once a week in the hottest heat of summer. Again, Houston takes care of all your watering needs. I live in Bandera, TX and have not watered my front lawn (St Augustine) yet this year. We got an inch of rain last night, so I'm good for at least a week and maybe two. Mulch mow at the mower's lowest setting at least once a week and preferably 2-3x per week. Fertilize with a high N, fast release once a month during the growing season. You can, of course, fertilize less often, but the grass will tend to thin out and become more lime green rather than dark green. I always suggest that at least one of these applications be an organic fertilizer. Organic fertilizers keep your soil healthy along with the lawn. Use herbicide in mid April and late September. If you changed to St Augustine, the same watering method works. Mow at the highest setting no more than once a week. I try to go 2 weeks. And with St Aug you only fertilize in late May, September, and around Thanksgiving. It's a lot less hassle than bermuda.

Sorry I tried to delete the last post because I thought the subject line was non-descriptive.