It can retard or reduce the germination of seeds so if you have a lot of self-seeding perennials or annuals in your garden - much like many cottage style gardeners do - you might want to wait until these have sprouted before laying the mulch. OTOH, weed seeds will sprout during this period as well so a bit of a catch-22: weeds versus the self-seeders :-))

Hardy perennials already established in the ground and bulbs will easily grow through mulch, provided it is not applied overly thick nor excessively moisture retentive, which could contribute to crown rot in some plants.

Depending on how warm your soil is there in Tenn, the worst it would do is slow the sprouting of those not popping up yet by keeping the soil cool.

tj

If your soil was frozen this past winter applying a mulch now will insulate it and keep it cooler longer, so it may not be a good idea to mulch for a month or so. However, if your soil is, like mine, thawed or not frozen you could spread that mulch with little adverse affect on the plants growing there. My soil under the mulches is not frozen and the soil under the heavy snow cover is not frozen and even the soil that was not covered by either has thawed and the water from the melting snow, as well as the rain that is now falling, are not running off but are going not the soil, something that would not happen if the soil was frozen.