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.

you might regret something so pervasive ... many of those.. lacey notes.. are easily pulled out.. when they get too far from where you really want them ... clover might not be so easily trainable ... escaping your bed.. crossing the lawn.. and heading 3 neighbors down ... lol also ... i have some such in my former horse pasture.. what i now call a lawn ... along with other things like plantain ... dandilion.. yarrow.. etc ... and the rabbits hit the salad bar of a lawn.. and mostly ignore my garden beds ... you need to find out if it is a rabbit crop.. and not really plant such an attractant.. or you might be calling the rabbits to your beds .... akin to planting 6 packs of beer in your beds.. and wondering why you have all these middle aged men with beer bellies.. hanging around your backyard,... lol ... ken

I wish this forum would let me know when messages are left. I have to stumble on a conversation before I know it is there. The bottom lime question is to know how much dry leaf mulch might be too much and when can it be put into place. In Mid November, I can get the town to dump them into the driveway and they are incredibly dry and easy to move but I read that I should wait until the ground is frozen (Dec? Jan?) to put them down. For this, I would have to fill up my garage (probably housing rodents. I can still get them in December but now I have to go to the town yard to get them and they are wet/cold sometimes frozen on the top and under they are dry. Then I have to do it manually. I have to schlepped with a pitchfork (manure fork) by hand into a truck, cart them home and schlepped to the gardens. What I want to hear is that I can put them down (dry, light, and flaky) in November, 4" - 6" deep without killing plants and not housing rodents. I fear that the best, and most work, is to wait until December/January. As far as cutting the lawn: I never have grass clippings collecting in clumps unless the grass is wet and when I have ankle deep+ leaves allover the lawn, they still mulch to disappearing. If they are too much for the lawn, I use a leaf blower to put the surplus into the gardens. I have not "fertilized" the lawn nor use any weed killer not insecticide in 20 years. My lawn is greener than the treated and watered lawns in the neighborhood. I listen to the sounds at night and neighbors wonder they they don;t hear them in their yards.

Personally I would plant mint. Lots of it, in all possible flavours. I understand you don't want to care for that corner much, in which case you need something that looks good all the time, not just two months a year. You can have a mix of winter cyclamen and hellebores, spring lilly of the valley (I have small kids and they are smart enough not to touch anything I tell them is poisonous), summer moss, autumn cyclamens (different than winter ones). However all this requires some maintenance, much more than mint :D Why not place a few aromatics? Like celery, parsley and a few pots of mint? ;) Also spinach, peas and lettuce would love to grow there. Or you could go for a trellis on the wall and let vinca grow on it, one with gorgeous leaves. I have a full north little space and the previous owners had the vinca and trellis. It looked nice but I preffered to reduce it in size and plant small pansies and many types of hellebores. It makes for a gorgeous front autumn and winter garden, less gorgeous in spring and summer.