I'm not sure which is the best forum for this query,so I guess I'll post it on several. I'm in the process of making a very large garden here in Tuscany, Italy; I've had to start from scratch,but finally this year I'm mulching it with wood chips.Because I have to contend with VERY aggressive weeds , lack of summer rain ,and the cost of the bark chips, I am covering the ground with cardboard and topping this off with the wood chips. What's more,the entire garden is on a slope. I began the job last fall, with the idea of conserving the soil moisture (we had good rain during the past fall and winter; the pattern here is that once spring/summer hit, the soil begins to dry out so by summer's end, it's hard as brick...) I would like to use stones for the main paths in the garden for several reasons: I have plenty of them,they would look nice to sort of differentiate the paths from the rest of the garden, and hopefully they would help keep the chips in place and make them last longer. My question is: can I do this immediately? or should I wait a year or so to be sure that most of the weeds are killed off? Can anyone see a down side to this idea of placing the stones on top of the cardboard-and-wood chip mulch? thanks in advance for your thoughts and opinions...bart