Playground mulch is actually designed to standards that have mostly to do with impact (and liability to those who specify it). The knock on cedar mulch, as I remember it, is that it is very fibery and can give you little tiny splinters if you contact it a lot (refering to western red cedar). Pine mulch is a widely varying thing as there is no standard, there are lots of species of pine, and then there is the whole thing between recycled wood, wood chips, and actual bark (won't even go into dye).... and in the south they use pine needles as mulch (usually called pine straw). Pine mulch can mean a lot of different things. My mulch of choice is finely ground pine BARK. The problem is that it is more often than not "cut" with other crap (recycled wood or wood chips) these days and you wind up with a bunck of wood chips on top after about a month to the weather.

Personally I prefer to use black plastic for warming the soil. I've found it heats somewhat slower than clear, but it also doesn't allow weed seeds to start growing either. I usually lay it down about 2-3 weeks earlier that I plan to plant and the soil is warmed sufficiently enough. Also I normally cut holes thru the plastic to plant so the soil continually warms for a few more weeks. I'll remove it when I start laying down organic material for mulching about the fist week of June. I only use plastic mulch to warm the soil for: Melon, Pumpkin, Eggplant, and Okra so I can plant out between May 11-15th vs waiting the extra 2 weeks after the last average frost date has passed. One year all I had available was clear trash bags to use. I laid it over the hills I created for the melon. Within about 1.5 weeks I had well over 1,000 Amaranthus 'Intense Purple' seedlings literally covering the hills LOL! I took this picture while I was in the process of laying down mulch; as you can see I ultimately decided to allow some Amaranthus to stay, but many of the smaller ones ended up in the compost pile. No more clear plastic after that fiasco :O PS. How soon you want to lay it out will depend on your soil type. Soils having a lot of clay will warm up much slower than a sandy loam soil :)

We have a lot of area to cover with mulch. We get it all for free from a tree company. There is a company I trust (to bring only oak, cedar, or pine and no trash trees like peppers, camphors, palms, etc). I call them when we are ready, and it could be a month later, they dump a very large truckload in our yard. It usually takes two truckloads to do a decent job (8-10 yards each). We do this twice yearly. The wood chips are great and break down into a wonderful black organic top layer. The earthworms love it. It is great to recycle, a free dump for the tree company, and free for us, great for the environment and our plants. You have to find a tree company you trust, tho, and make your requirements known. They will understand. If you don't go this route, you might look into maleleuca mulch (florimulch). It is the most environmentally sound, but sometimes a bit more than cypress. Doesn't hurt to ask tho. I know you have large areas to cover. I would definitely think about free wood chips. Have fun! Anna

Melissa, URGENT WARNING!!! 'For some reason I'm suspicious of yew' English/European Yew (Taxus baccata) is extremely toxic to humans and many animals, including horses, cattle , pigs, sheep and goats. Deer are not affected; not sure re cats and dogs.** Most parts of the plant except the red 'berry' surrounding the seed - according to Wikipedia - I only just found this out; I'd always assumed the berries were toxic too. Foliage becomes MORE toxic when dried out. I just thought I'd better speak up, even though you may well be fully aware of this, and only wondering about possible toxicity to other plants... I would hate for any animals on your property to be accidentally harmed or killed. Comtesse :¬) A fuller reference than Wikipedia re this (sorry, I don't know how to post links!) is:- 'Ontario Ministry of Agriculture Fact Sheet: Yew poisoning in horses and ruminants' but I'm sure there are many others. **Edit: Did a bit more googling - cats and dogs ARE also susceptible. As with other animals, the amount ingested can be very small per body weight, and the effect is very quick - first symptom is often 'sudden death'. No known antidote. Animals have died from chewing on sticks or nibbling Christmas wreaths or old clippings, left lying around. Death is so quick, animals are often found dead beside the tree or clippings, with the leaves still in their mouths. By the way, according to what I've read, the Pacific Yew, which is unlikely to be what you have there, mentioned in earlier comments is the lowest, or amongst the lowest toxicity of the different varieties, not the highest. (That reference may have been only for plant, not human and animal toxicity.) Please do take care.