Hi

I am giving up on planting a dry shade area and want to use it for a seating area with table. (Cottage garden)

There is not much of a budget for this and it's not a project I can tackle myself. And so I thought of simply levelling as much as I can, and then put cedar wood chip mulch over landscape fabric. I have used this for a path and a small seating area elsewhere.

I did find an issue with the legs of Adirondack chairs sinking into the mulch under any weight but would remedy this by using chairs that don't have pointy legs but rather horizontal bars, like folding chairs do. The table would be another issue and I might have to put it on a few pavers until things have settled in.

Does anyone have experience/advice for this? I hope to eventually install a proper flagstone patio in that area, but it won't be this year. I'm also still playing around with the shape of some beds and not ready to commit to hardscape.