Nature's Helper soil conditioner is my hero these days.
Depending on the place, I also use mini nuggets and pine straw to define areas.

I like what my nursery calls pine fines which is very fine pine mulch. I also like chopped leaves more than just about anything, but don't have my own shredder and the city mulch made from leaves often contains other stuff I don't want because people don't care what they rake to the curb for pick-up. :(

If you have good soil, it probably doesn't matter too much, but we have heavy Virginia clay and I need mulch that breaks down quickly to enrich the soil.

I am always inundated with weeds and every year I pledge to do better. Now, I am trying to like the weeds since they usually win the battle.

I use a hardwood mulch by the truckloads, it sure has helped my rock hard clay soil. I know how you feel about the weeds. I used cardboard with the mulch on top. Big difference. Still get some airborne weeds in, but they're almost a pleasure to pull!

when i put this garden in, I did the carboard, planting mix and compost, mulched with cedar shavings. 10 yrs ago. ive since them, recomosted and newspapered and mulched 2 times. the last time was lst year i used mulch brought in from the county after tree trimming. i let it set a year before using it. it all broke down and disappeared in one year. My plan was to get a couple of units of cedar shavings again this weekend, but got sick, so didnt happen. so thought i would ask opinions on mulch.
thanks!

I use shredded oak leaves for some of the beds, but my favorite by far is pine needles. I buy lots of bales all year long.

I would like to use leaves or straw or composted bark - but with the powerful winds where I live, I have to use the biggest bark mulch I can find because it's the only thing that won't blow away. I will often put composted mulch or compost under the large bark mulch.

I've tried so many kinds of things. Spent lots of money on commercial products, and then I learned from Kathy (plantmaven) to just use what Nature gives us: LEAVES

I now only use leaves from my trees (Oak, Aspen, Cottonwood, & whatever). I add my fallen pine needles (pine straw) around all acid-loving plants, like strawberries, firs, azaleas, and etc. Great stuff.

In addition to my own leaves, I also go to a friend's country pub to rake up all the leaves I want - Sycamore leaves. My flowers, shrubs, and trees, all thrive when I add those to my gardens. Going there this week to get more, too. :)

The more leaves I pile on, around and under my plants, the better everything grows. Earthworms love them, and NO WEEDS!

It's free, totally natural, 100% organic, and no trees have to die so I can have a beautiful garden. My money stays in my pocket, and I'm not helping some billionaire get richer!

And honestly, it really works!

~Annie

Just last week my across the street neighbor brought his leaves and dumped them in the back yard beds. On a nice day we will mulch some of them with the mower.
If they arrive in bags, I let them compost in the bags.

The city no longer takes bags of leaves. Subsequently several neighbors are thrilled to give them to me.

If you gather curbside bags, you might run into rocks, nails, bolts etc. Which is why I started letting them compost in the bag.

Kathy

I've always used just leaves. I figure if forests can thrive on just fallen leaves, my garden can too.

well aged dark anything; as long as it is not dyed red, brown or black.

I use mulch made from leaf debris from the city recycling center. Nice, dark, composted stuff. I have to pull out an occasional bit of trash but it is always great mulch and compost, for the most part weed free (well except for once when it came up morning glory seedlings everywhere!)

Sometimes I get wood chips from the city also, it looks just the same as the bagged expensive cypress mulch but it's free!

We use a lot of mulch. Some of our beds, like the front foundation beds, we use commercial bark mulch. On most of the other beds, we use chopped leaves with grass clippings. Whatever falls in the back beds under the trees, stays where it falls. Whatever lands on the lawn, gets mowed and that mix of chopped leaves and grass clippings goes where ever we need it most.

We also have a neighbor that abutts us in the back where we only have a 4ft post and rail fence and he has a LOT of trees. We have an arrangement that he blows his leaves over to my fence line and then deposits them over the fence. We are both happy with that. We used to have a neighbor that bagged their leaves and we were welcome to drag the bags over to our house if we wanted them. Now that the neighbor behind gives us his leaves, we seem to have enough. We also have a large wire bin that we collect yard waste all season and extra leaves in the fall and we get a good amount of compost every year that we use in the veggie beds.

for me it's cocoa shells, hands down. love the look and the initial smell, too! it's easy to apply, being lightweight, and i do enjoy that garden chore. yes, it can be on the expensive side, but i do think it just looks better with my perennials, especially the delicate or small ones.

two things;
one is that the trees that the leaves fall from also need their leaves to be composted for their own use- we learned that from an arborist who told us to leave them in place as far as possible. now we only use leaves that have blown along a roadside.

second is that i think cocoa mulch is the kind that can kill dogs if they eat it. just fyi if i am right. min

i add compost (not this year) and leaves. but i'm not deterring any weeds. i have 4 huge maple trees so access to them is not a problem plus one oak. DH bought me a dump truck load of bark to make my beds pretty. i'm putting paper bags and newspaper down around and between the perennials that are coming up. some beds i will have to wait on as things arent coming up yet that i dont want to bury. such as my lilies and dahlias. i live surrounded by fields that are mown all summer and the weeds blow in from everywhere. carpets of bitter cress are out now.plus the grass thats coming up. i can only pull runners so long. its kinda fun in the beginning. but not for long.