This a geographically challenging question. Tuscany is in the northwest of Italy so you probably don't mean that. Mediterranean style uses gardens to the north of that sea as their inspiration, it is sandy but not a desert. Xeriscaping with irrigation? Light coloured gravel will reflect heat, and light more so this brings us full circle to: what are you trying to achieve swanoir.

Mediterranean gardens are quite popular in California because of the climatic similarities. Pop over to the California forum for a thread that may be useful, especially a description by Kassibum.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mediterranean Garden Ideas

Decomposed granite gives a Mediterranean look and is quite inexpensive. You are going to have certain limitations being in zone 5. The Mediterranean climate is usually more like USDA zones 9-10.

Whenever I use gravel or decomposed gravel as a mulch, I always prefer to use a landscape fabric below it to keep it from disappearing into the soil below over time. If you apply pea gravel or similar directly above soil, I can guarantee that you will have to top it off at least once a year or so to keep it looking good. If you use a water and air permeable fabric rather than plastic, there is no harm done to soil or roots. I personally find that using a light colored gravel can really set plants off in a way that bark mulches can't, and don't lose their color over time. You may also find that it makes it easier to grow things that require good drainage or have been subject to basal crown rot or diseased foliage from too wet soil.

Thank you all for your input and suggestions, which I will consider carefully.

incognito: I read with interest your thread entitled, "How to decide the function." When you ask what I am trying to achieve, I am reminded of the discussion of form following or not following function, apprehension of purpose, and the way I will use the garden. I am also reminded of an older thread that stated that the difference between a garden and landscape is that landscape is static and bears little of the owners blood, sweat, and tears while a garden is a living, dynamic expression of gardenerÂs vision.

Based on my understanding of the above information, here is my analysis:
Behind my house is a lake. There is a path from my house to the lake. The function of the path is to allow me to travel from my house to rake the leaves of the trees that fall near the lake. The purpose of the land on either side of the path is to be attractive enough to entice me to travel the path to rake the leaves. Being burned out and exhausting from the battle that is euphemistically called "building a house," the purpose of the land on either side of the path is not to suck endless hours that I do not have from my weary bones. However, this is what it is threatening to do because in order to make informed decisions that will not haunt me for generations, I need to absorb information about color, texture, form, use of space, cultivars, propagation, types of mulch, microclimates, drought tolerance, layering, maintenance issues, mature growth size, and the proper use of terminology that reflects my deep understanding of which sea inspires which style  all of which is like trying to make sushi out of an elephant.

To answer your question: what I am attempting to achieve is peace of mind. To help achieve that, we hired a landscape designer last year. We were very clear with her and ourselves that we wanted to honor the land and the life around our house, but had neither the time, skill, or talent to create a landscape that would do this. It took her 6 months (!) and lots of prodding to finish a rough sketch of a plan that looked like it would work. But now that we are actually in the position to create the landscaping, she will not return my calls or the calls from the nursery or the calls from the people actually putting in the plants. Therefore, I am experiencing an existential crisis because the original form, function, purpose, or vision of the garden is now inaccessible to me, yet I am expected to make decisions as if it is. In other words, what I wanted was landscaping but what I have is a garden. This is based strictly on the amount of blood, sweat, and tears I have now poured into what was once landscape. Emotionally, this is not a bad thing, but logically it is not what I intended given my non-existent gardening skills. I can only hope that laag will not be disappointed in me. :-)

Mediterranean may be the wrong term but I cannot think of a better way to communicates what type of mulch best suits a rather naturalistic, xeriscape type of style set in a high plain desert environment found in Central Washington state.

Have written this, I can now experience the zen genius of your question, because clearly the way to nirvana is to eschew mulch and embrace concrete.

A groundcover is a living plant - what you are searching for is a suitable mulch or topdressing. Although I detest it, lava rock would work (given all the caveats about using a non-organic mulch and weeds, maintenance nightmares, etc.) If bark is too "northwesty" in character, try just a simple screened compost. Compost is my preferred mulch for various reasons and it has a rich, dark color and better texture than most bark products. Many gardens in western Washington are very Mediterranean in character (as is appropriate for the climate) and both compost or bark are used extensively as a mulch without diminishing the Mediterranean flavor.

gardengal: thank you for that information. We like the idea of using compost or bark, but we are wondering how good they would be in terms of weed suppression vs the gravel.

Any mulch will help to surpress weeds to some degree - the maintenance issues of removing what weeds may develop from gravel or rock as opposed to a more organic mulch can be significant. And an organic mulch has the added benefit of improving soil conditions over time as well as helping to retain soil moisture and reduce evaporation.

Gravel has some drawbacks. Once you put it down, you had better be in love with the rock mulch because it's very difficult to get rid of. Not true for bark or compost.

When the leaves or pine needles fall onto your gravel, it looks awful and raking makes a mess.

If you don't have the material chosen for your path to the lake, I think decomposed gravel would make a great pathway. Composted bark for the rest.

Swanoir, I thank you for this brilliant and obviously heartfelt essay that expresses so much of the realities of life and landscaping. I think "peace of mind" is the objective in more landscape design projects than one might think.

But speaking of zen, perhaps your subject line is a freudian slip, and your nirvana might indeed be some ground cover. Can you spread nice compost, and then plant something like wooly thyme? It would require some trimming periodically, but overall makes no more work than keeping rocks organized or mulch replaced and weed-free.

Perhaps a photo... in case you don't have enough to do. A pox on people who don't return phone calls when you are depending on them!

I have to agree that ultimately living ground covers seem to work best, both aesthetically and functionally. Bark or other mulches, for me, are just the means to best achieve better and easier plant growth.
I'm curious about your initial characterization of your garden as mediterranian style (or alternatively xeric) and how your design pays homage to the surrounding landscape. This last, often ignored, aspect of design would seem to pose a particular challenge in terms of plant selection adapted to your zone 5 garden unless a fair number of native or native compatible choices are included. I'd love to see more details of your design.

I apologize if I came across as a smart arse swanoir, it seemed to me that you have had a mixed bag of advice and I wanted to take your question back to the beginning. It seems that you want to reduce the maintenance while keeping within the style that you like, is that right? Mulch is the obvious choice and, provided you don't get that bright red stuff, cedar could work but have a look at hemlock as well. Another possibility would be coco bean hulls. I am not going to suggest gravel because on a wooded lot, clearing leaves will be a nightmare. Whichever you use make sure the ground is clear of weeds first, if you use coco put it on 1 - 2 inches thick and spray water it afterwards this will cake it together and assist with water conservation. I have had maple seedlngs drop on this mulch and not germinate, pulling saplings out of a gravel mulched bed is not fun.

I am using a lot of ground cover cloth (commercial grade by Baycor)and bark mulch. I live near cattle pasture and have lots of wind and if I didn't use both I would never be able to keep up with the weeding and watering. Here is my herb garden with groundcover cloth and bark mulch - when the plants fill in the ground cover cloth and bark are hidden from view - using both for me at this location helps to conserve water (we have a very hot summer and drying winds)and it helps to keep down the weeds. From the bird house to the left was planted 2.5 years aso from 3 inch pots and most is hidden, from the bird house to the right was planted 1.5 years ago from 3 inch pots and it is still filling in. Pyracantha against fence were planted from one gallon pots.
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I am being a ditto-head, but vote for no gravel as mulch. Lots of leaves, do not mix so well with the gravel, and adding a lake at that plus major deciduous trees is already starting to not sound so Mediterranean, so I would focus more on the xeriscaping aspect, which ultimately may evolve toward not having lots of exposed garden bed and visible mulch of any kind anyway, but be mostly plants, than trying to mimic specifically a gravel look. The mulch would be hidden and yet renewable. I agree that gravel, pea or other, can look spectacular with certain plants and I have droolod over such garden photos in books, but to me it is high maintenance except in a true desert environment (where you have a paucity of actual plant material) and/or for small areas that you can manicure.

Raking leaves from paths can be a big pain too and in that case if you can use something other than loose pea gravel, more of the decomposed compacted material, your raking will be much easier and therefore eventual weed growth in paths will be less. However LOTS of linear feet of paths to rake is not a low-maintenance prospect.

gardengal48: ok, that is very helpful. Thank you. :-)

nwnatural: given the feedback here, and our assessment of the situation, that is the direction we are going.

karinl: I am glad to hear that it didnt come off as whining, which was not my intention. I greatly respect the skills and abilities of the people here who work with gardens and landscaping. It is just a bit overwhelming to the rest of us mortals.

In terms of the ground cover, this was suggested to us by a friend who is a true gardener, and we have incorporated various types of thyme, teucrium, cerastium, etc. into our design. The problem is that this site was full of weeds when we cleared it to build the house and we need to control that without the use of chemicals if we can avoid it. Based on how the ground cover does, we may be able to slowly incorporate it in other areas, thereby achieving eco-enlightenment. :-)

I have included photos below:

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gweirdo: it is somewhat difficult to answer your question, since we didnt do the landscape design. I can say that our intention was to use drought-tolerant plants that grow well in this area to create an ambiance that defined a place of sanctuary for us. Since a Mediterranean landscape evoked that feeling for us, we began to use that term, perhaps inappropriately. We also wanted to contribute to the land by replacing all the scruffy weeds with plants that would help support the local wildlife (the birds and the bees, not the adolescents in Mini-Coopers).

The difficulty is to being able to communicate the experience we want from our garden using the limited lexicon that we have. It is like trying to tell someone from another planet what milk tastes like. We know exactly what we are talking about (fortunately) but no one else does. This probably means we were raised by wolves.

To see the details of our design, please go here: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/design/msg0623022121666.html

inkognito: I believe I have read enough of your posts to both respect your knowledge and appreciate your writing style. I also believe that you do not mind a bit of verbal jousting, which I am happy to provide. No offense was taken. :-)

I will talk to our landscaper about the suggestions you mentioned thank you. We were also concerned about the clean up on gravel, so you are spot on there.

springvillegardens: your herb garden is beautiful and the view of the hills is amazing. You have obviously put a great deal of work and love into your creation. Thank you so much for sharing this.

frankie_in_zone_7: your vote has been noted and recorded for posterity. I hadnt thought about the linear feet of raking on the paths. Hmmm.... perhaps I need to take up Zen Buddhism.
When you say decomposed compacted material, do you mean decomposed gravel and would that be with landscape cloth underneath or not? Thanks.

Swanoir
several days ago I happened to check out a book from the local library - "Venzano, A scented Garden In Tuscany" by Stephanie Donaldson. I was struck by the general similarities of the photos of the larger Tuscan landscape to your own - especially your view "Front looking North".
I looked over your plant list, and while there are some wonderful plants there, I think (if you are like most gardeners) that over time you'll find that you may have likes and dislikes or some plants / combinations that just seem to work better than others. Don't be afraid to experiment and change things if needed.
One other small suggestion I would make is to study that particular view posted above. If you look across the road, you'll see a true natural xeriscape - in fact a quite beautiful one. Sometimes it behooves us to appreciate what's already there.

gweirdo: thank you very much for your insights. As it turns out, we have already made a number of changes to the original plant list. For example, we exchanged the Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy' in the front for a Corylus avellana 'Contorta', which was a fun choice. We also did away with the Euonymus alata compacta, Berberis thunbergii atropurpurea, Buxus microphylla koreana, and Spireae japonica 'Anthony Waterer' and replaced them with choices that were either less conventional, less invasive, or more xeric. We hope that, over time, we will be able to better appreciate the land that is all around us and allow that to inspire us.