Yep, it's pretty darn dry where I'm at. The drip irrigation I use doesn't fall under our current water restrictions, but I still try to not use excessive amounts. I also mulch everywhere and add increasing layers as the weather heats up.

This is my soil from when I was weeding yesterday, plenty moist and look at all those worms!

I'm in inland southern California, and I've never thought about growing bay leaves. I don't think I've seen it at my local nursery, where did you get yours?

Yep! Some previous owner of my house put in an absolutely massive pool that takes up 95% of the backyard, so I smothered my front lawn with mulch and built my garden there!

The bermuda grass is tenacious though, really have to stay on top of yanking it where it tries to reestablish. You'll see patches of it if you look in the background of the lower photo, but it's a war of attrition I think I'm slowly winning.