I took Harvestman's advice a year ago and it worked like a charm. 80+ trees that had weeds all around. We took wet newspapers and covered with recycled mulch. In tough weed areas we used cardboard and mulch. I get my newspapers at the recycle center and my cardboard at our local food market. I ask for the recycled boxes, they are always happy to give those to me. I also had a really bad area around the back of my garage. Last year I covered it with very thick cardboard and mulch and placed some pots with flowers to make the area look decent. This Spring the soil in that area looks great and I'll turn it into an herb and flower bed.

grass (fresh) can and does mat into a giant plug of garbage. the nitrogen load can be an issue (Harbin you're part right, but when do you put a half-pound of fertilizer on the ground? one can easily add that much or more dried weight grass, so the excess N2 can be an issue.... that said, if you put it on green and wet my main issue has been that it can form this giant, stinky plug nothing else gets past--as mentioned, rain sloughs off it. Nothing grows through it, and things in the middle can be over-fed or suffocated by it. Grass can mulch, but too much can be a disaster. Drying it is the best solution I've seen thus far.

The reason i mulch is that grass steals water and nutrients from the tree. Keeping the drip area or farther open helps the tree. Yes 4 feet beats three and is worth it IMHO. I mulch to slow down the grass and weeds. Everything else is gravy. As far as Redwoods and 13-13-13 is people forget we are not talking about forest trees here. A peach tree left on it's own will bear so much fruit it's branches will break and invite disease in. Needless to say it will die. We are talking about feeding domesticated trees, not wild ones. The fruit trees will not survive without our care. Well many of them. Also don't let dwarf fool you, not many trees are genetic dwarfs, so they are reduced by rootstock selection. This method doesn't work that well. 15 feet tall is very possible. Unless you have genetic dwarfs the best way to control size is by pruning to the height you desire and forget about rootstock, use dwarf, semi-dwarf or regular. I find the non-dwarfing rootstocks are darn good, and I prefer to use them. Like Lovell for peaches. I do like using dwarf rootstock for cherries though. They bear faster and produce well.

Decorative colour within wood chips is a owner preference , numerous natural colours are available to match the surrounding decor requirements . Same with the tree bark mulch application . The wood chips will tamp well and the tree bark mulch will provide the cushioning that Nancy requires along with nutrients that the soil and root structure require during decomposition . Only the texture and composition and life cycle of these products vary . Otherwise a simple application of loam would suffice . Appearance is a secondary consideration to the prevention of fruit damage and is in the eye & mind of the beholder , as are opinions !