I agree with Ken...

OK, so my long term plan will be to let plants mulch themselves, but remember this is a garden in progress. There is still much open space that needs mulching to prevent weeds.

Lacking some info about, how much slope, front or back of property, what plants you're considering, I'll just take a stab at it.

Mulches and stones, on slopes, tend to wash downhill in heavy rains. I think the leaf mulch fits best with your desire to let nature, more or less, take it's course. Easier to place and replace for sure. Self-seeding will happen more readily with leaf mulch too.

Whatever plants you are looking at, for dry, lean soil, I'm wondering how much mulch they would really want anyway.

It sounds like you would like this to eventually be low maintenance. That may not be so easy if you want conditions for self-seeding, which requires some nearly bare dirt for a lot of the plants you're probably considering, that = weeds too.

I opt for a lot of self-seeding at my place, and just embrace the "joy" of continually weeding.

Someone recently recommended to me, Ernst Seeds, if you would want a prairie type slope.

Everything on the opposite side of the street is a weed. That is what wants to grow on your hill. Weed control isn't about dandelions and crabgrass. It is about maples and oaks and Virginia creeper and poison ivy and multiflora roses. By far the easiest way to manage those is beheading by lawnmower. If that solution won't work for any reason, then you are doing a lot of hand weeding until things fill in, and even after that there will be upkeep. Oak seedlings can outcompete *any* perennial, and maples can sprout anywhere.

remember this is a garden in progress. There is still much open space that needs mulching to prevent weeds.

==>> exactly ... but once you cover an area with favored plants.. thick enough with plants... there should be little need to move all the plants to put down mulch ... the plants are the soil covering ... or i should say.. last years dead stuff is covering the soil ..

ken

I treat all my borders in the way you are describing. A few things get cut back in the fall but then in (very) early spring I go over the whole bed with either a hedge trimmer, weed whacker, or mower and then put down a layer of chopped leaves To cover the mess. The leaves are mostly gone by now, but mine are established beds so the plants spread out and cover everything And weeds aren’t a problem. In the early days I mulched with wood chips.