Does bark/mulch stop weeds from growing?

[Daren]

I'm planning on making a bit of a garden around some palms in the front yard.

The plan is to put white stones in a circle around each palm and then fill the rest of the area with bark/ mulch. (roughly 8m x 3m)

Is this a good way to make a maintenance free garden or would weeds grow through the mulch and end up being more trouble than its worth ?

[dazzler]

It will slow them down heaps.

Make sure its about 2" to 4" deep and spray with roundup before you lay it.

[Toolin Around]

doesn't stop them from growing but makes them real easy to pull and or rake out. The roots get real long and weak when they have to drill through a thick layer of mulch.

[malb]

Mulch will keep out a lot of weeds if you can get the right stuff, and lay it to 3-4 inches deep. However it will break down over time, so a top up twice a year is very beneficial.

For best results, get rid of the vegetation in the area to be mulched beforehand. You could spray a month or so before, then hit any emergent growth a week or so before mulching, or you could break up the ground and rake out all vegetation.
<O:p
Apply a mulch that is at least 50% fines, with a range of medium and large components as well. The fines will smother any emerging weeds by denying the sunlight, while the medium fines hold the fines in place, the medium, holds the medium fines in place and so on.
<O:p
We did a warehouse carpark about 8 months ago, 3/4 acre of bitumen, concrete and weeds to 3 foot high. Slashed the weeds to near ground level and removed, rotary hoed the beds and raked out all vegetation. Prepared and planted beds, installed drip irrigation, and mulched to 100mm.
<O:p
We go back every couple of weeks to maintain, spray any weeds showing and check that the plants are OK etc. On average we find about 3 or 4 weeds have worked their way through the mulch in the ¾ acre, so we spray these and pull the ones we sprayed the previous time. We have added another inch of mulch to a couple of beds as they were starting to get a bit light, but the whole job has stood up well.