Glad I asked. I was not expecting those answers plus I used to live in the apts at 10000 Imperial Hwy and worked at the old Rockwell plant. Obviously didn't have to care for the grass there ;-) Back when I was there you could still find cattle in the area. Not anymore. You're watering exactly right, so that's really most of the way to a great lawn. The bermuda and St Augustine will compete with each other in a good way. Unless you want to have the Yard of the Month, I would leave it like that. St Aug will thrive in the shade and either will thrive in the sun. If you mow it as low as 1 inch high, then the yard will always look like a bermuda lawn with weeds. If you mow it at 4 inches high, eventually it will all look like a St Augustine lawn. The reason is the St Augustine's wider blades will shade out the bermuda very gradually. But if you want to favor the St Augustine, you must NEVER forget to water. Sure you can skip once but don't skip twice. St Augustine does not go dormant when it dries out, it goes directly to dead. If that happens, you will have a full bermuda lawn in a few weeks. Since you have shade some of the St Aug in the shade will survive to fight back. You can run that battle back and forth for years if you want. I've done it...kinda fun for a lawn nerd. If you want to favor the bermuda, then search the Internet for the Bermuda Bible and follow that. It requires lots of fertilizer all year long (since you live where it never freezes). If you want to favor the St Aug, you can get away with fertilizing 3x per year (Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving). If you really want it to jump out at you (you said it was not spreading), you can try fertilizing with an organic fertilizer like alfalfa pellets (from a feed store). Apply 20 pound of pellets per 1,000 square feet. If you want it to really go, do that every month for the rest of the season. A 50-pound bag of alfalfa should cost around $12. It also comes as rabbit or chinchilla food. The reason you can use organics in the summer and not synthetic (Scott's) is that the organic does not feed the plants directly. Organic fertilizers are made from grains which feed the bacteria and fungi in the soil. Then the soil microbes feed the grass. By going through all the biology, the grass doesn't get burned by the salty synthetics. It works! Here is a little motivational picture I clipped from GardenWeb last year. That is a zoysia lawn. Note the improved color, density, and growth. That was after 3 weeks. It takes a little time for the organics to work the first time. You'll get the same results, I promise. What else???

Yes, soil is going to make a difference. It's not that hard to DIY it and you can save yourself 75%. Village Nurseries (various locations) sells a turf that looks pretty good. I watched the guys do it on my install and after seeing what they did, I'd do it myself. They took out about 6" of soil, put down about 5" of "road base", tamped it down, then put down a 3/4" layer of some kitty-litter type stuff that they claimed would prevent odors, tamped that down, got everything super perfectly level. Then they laid down the turf and nailed it down with 6" galvanized spikes around the edges. If you have to use more than one piece of turf you flip it over and tape the pieces together with a tape recommended for the product. Then they brushed play sand into the turf, which helps the blades stand up and stay up. Done. I think the key thing is getting the road base perfectly firm and level. If you take your time and are patient and meticulous about that, it just didn't seem that difficult. Luckily I needed soil in another part of the yard so there was no need to haul the removed soil away, which costs $$$. Mine has been in place 3 years and there's still no odor--perhaps a vague hint on a hot day in summer, but no reek. I was worried about that. If your soil drainage is poor it might be more of an issue. I give it a quick hose off when I wash the car. It is going to look good longer in shady areas. It does have UV inhibitors but the sun gets to everything eventually.

(likely a creeping perennial) ==>>> key word in that.. or letter is ... A ... NEVER rely on one plant .. ever ... the only real way.. to find ONE plant .. is to plant a mess of different kinds... and find out.. which will thrive in your courted micro climate ... so take all the recommendations.. and wing it .. there is no definitive answer ... and you will probably end up enjoying the variation ... having owned a golden.. your biggest problem.. will probably be... getting them to not dig them up.. to find out what you put under them .. rather large golden squirrels .. lol ... so figure out.. how to protect them.. long enough to get going ... though once established.. you should be all set .... BTW ... many of the ground cover are aggressive flowerers ... which will attract bees ... which my old golden.. used to enjoy eating.. really.. what was that all about .... though usually.. the flower season is rather short.. a week or two ... but they can make it difficult to walk in your court yard.. for that period ... ken

@norm1977, wow, I hadn’t expected a response or comment anymore at this late stage, but it’s always nice when someone checks in! On the whole, the lawn is holding up great. One of my dogs passed away in 2019, 😢 so it’s only taking abuse from one instead of two now, and there are definitely places along the edges where it has died because those are regular pee spots for my boy. But I expected that, and they’re not big areas. Right now a good portion of the lawn is dormant for winter, especially where it’s more exposed when there’s the occasional frost like we got last week. It is one of the best garden investments I made!