Five years ago when we moved in, this area looked nice with a nice rock ground cover. But as is life, nature finds a way and the area was overcome with weeds and the plastic weed barrier that was laid before we moved in (terrible) started disintegrating and showing through. Since weeding between rocks is hell on earth, I ignored it until I decided that I want it to look nice.
After 3 hours of doing my best to remove as much plastic as possible (nightmare), I'm entertaining options for a new ground cover that requires less maintenance than the rocks. I'd rather just pile something on top of the rocks after I level things out a bit.
I'm in zone 10b in southern California. Would straw mulch or wood mulch work? How thick should I lay it? I know I'll have to top it off every year or so as it breaks down. Is there another option? Thanks