Three months ago, we had unmulched aisles and a huge pile of wood chips (right). Now two thirds of the aisles are mulched and the pile is all gone (above).

I've been very, very pleased with my mulched aisles, actually. The weeding pressure is dramatically reduced since there's no need to root out plants trying to creep from the aisles into the garden beds. And the unwatered perennials have done better than I thought they would during dry periods, presumably because of moisture held beneath the wood chips and accessible to plant roots.

I guess the only question left is --- how hard will I have to work to track down another dump-truck load of chipped trees? Living right beside the road has definitely helped my garden thrive!