Some evil previous owners of our home had put red lava rock everywhere. We curse them every time we dig, pull weeds, weed, etc. Fortunately after three years of serious landscaping most is gone but a little red rock reared it's ugly, sharp head a few days ago in my front bed. Please don't do it. Red is ugly in a a garden as a mulch. Red rocks, red mulch and red bricks all look unnnatural. It will cause years of being cursed by the next owners or maintainers of the property.

"I think my back hurts.." Hey Pete, if you only *think* your back hurts just keep on composting the way you are and soon you will *know* it hurts! LOL You are doing very well and I'm sure a lot of us would love to see pics of your compost operation. Keep going and you might end up with a system like Lloyd's! If you can get wood shavings they work well mixed with compost as a mulch. I use it regularly and the shavings disappear within a few months. Actual coarse chips from lumber mills are OK for paths but take ages to break down in my experience. Fresh wood chips from tree services are faster. So it all depends on what a person means by the term wood chips. Cardboard is useful placed between plants under mulch as weed/moisture control. Easier to work with than newspaper IMO. Paul, I never realized you live on Cape Breton Island. We have fond memories of towing a travel trailer all around the Cabot Trail back in the 70's. No one had told us that was ill-advised because of the grades. Of course we were from BC and didn't think the mountains were all that high! We also learned during that trip summer was over in the middle of August and we "enjoyed" a lovely storm coming off the Atlantic while we camped on the far side. Great memories!

Rick, I understand completely where you are coming from. I have very large gardens and spent a couple years mulching it all. Now they all need it again and I'm wondering if I will move forward with all that mulch again. First, have you checked the following places for cheaper mulch, the city, any of the tree removing companies? I have a tree removing company that will come out and dump one of their large trucks of mulch for $42. You are right, it does not go far. I did what you've come to the conclusion of. I worked one bed at a time, mulched it, planted it up and then moved on to another bed. I think that is a terrific plan, if it were me, I would not waste the amount of time it is going to take you to place ground covers in all your beds, it is GOING to be more work. They do still get weeds under the plants and especially because it takes 4 or 5 years to get any real growth on them. Regarding your method of digging in your grass. I'm a little worried about that because you don't want grass to grow up through your conifers. Grass roots are pretty aggressive. I have clay soil too, when I started I hoed my gardens and seriously broke hoes from the cement the rain created (this was before I learned about mulch). Here is a cheap suggestion for you. It may not look as nice but it was very cost effective for me and a great way to get started when I was still spending TONS of money on plants to fill in my large gardens...Take your grass clippings and use them as mulch. Put it on real thick and that will also mat down during rains and assist in weed control AND most importantly it provides wonderful tilth to your clay soil. Also, during the Fall, I collected tons and tons of leaves and placed a thick layer of them on my gardens too. I don't know about your area, but in town they people will rake or mow and place their bags of leaves and grass the curb, I would come buy (in the cover of darkness because I was a chicken) with a pickup and trailer fill it up and spread it on my gardens. People would tell me if they used weed killer it would kill my plants, I never lost one plant. Also, they say you should chop the leaves up but I did not do that it worked so well for me. Once you are no longer buying the number of plants you are now starting out, then you can concentrate on purchasing wood chips and come back around and place wood chips over your grass/leaves. I think you are doing an awesome job making sure you know where all your beds will be, how they will meander around your yard. If I were you, I would just keep mowing the beds as you currently are until you get one bed at a time done and start using the free mulch you already have on your property :). I think you are going to have one beautiful yard once everything grows. Keep moving along, I love how you are so forward thinking and asking those questions up front. I wish I had done that as I would have eliminated a LOT of mistakes. Good luck.

i fried a bunch of stuff in very dark cocoa mulch ... as sun heated the media and cause moisture problems underneath ... it dried too fast ... then it molded.. what a nightmare ... but i would never use dark again .... and i am talking black .. more than dark brown ... whatever works.. works ... in this economy ... you are in a good bargaining position ... buy the best product.. and be prepared to pay what it cost .... but if its the further guy.. simply ask him if he wants to waive the $50 ... or lose the sale .... bet a buck he might gladly match the closer guys price ... i mean really.. is he going to give up a 400 sale on a 50 dollar principle??? ken