Stone Chips are NOT low maintenance. There have been lots of posts on other forums about this. Weeds will grow up between the stones. Stones retain and or reflect heat and can cook your plants (this was in reference to the white chips, not sure about brown). If you ever change your mind about the location of the bed it is a real pain to remove all those stones. I would stick with mulch.

I have posted on this subject in the past. And in case I was not perfectly clear before, here's my opinion: NEVER NEVER NEVER use stone mulch anywhere!!! What a pain in the patootie it is. It's dirty. It's unstable. It's too mobile (imagine kids, pets, etc. running through, around, and over it). It will never never decompose and make your soil better. And last, but not least, it will be a real &itch to remove when you finally get fed up with it.