Also for annuals, I have used straw or salt hay (not regular hay) after planting. Both have worked well as mulch, and they are lighter and easier to spread than the bark chips. A bale of straw or salt hay goes a long ways, bringing the cost to about 12 cents a bed foot (4 feet wide) which is less than the bed-foot cost of the wood chips. One drawback is I am finding both materials more prone to drying out than my reliable pine bark chips. These two materials will remain in my mulch repertoire when I put a lot of new annual seedlings into the ground. The are light in weight and seedlings grow nicely through them. Pine needles are abundant adjacent to part of my growing area and actually look quite nice as a mulch. I don’t personally like working around the pointed needles, but they are available, so I use them in some of my perennial growing areas.
Plastic is a type of mulch I have not yet used, even though it is a staple of many farms. I do not want any more plastic than necessary floating around the beds, or having to be disposed of. Four years ago I tried an organic corn starch-based “plastic” type material. It is said to decompose into the soil and is, as mentioned, organic. I am personally not sold on the product, even though it works very well for others and might be worth your trying. I might try it again. My problem with it is I find, even this year, pieces of the product still in my soil, not yet broken down as I expected. This was a disappointment. Also, I put transplants into the ground by hand, as other gardeners might, rather than with a mechanical transplanter. Creating holes in this type of product proved more time consuming than I wanted. Having said this, for a small garden, I would definitely prefer to use this product than to use plastic. Like plastic, these plant-based “bioplastics” prevent air and water from passing through, so a drip type water system should be employed.
A neat product, which I have s seen in action, but have not yet used, is called Flora-Flow ©. It is a plastic product, which not only serves as mulch, but also has irrigation drip tape attached to its underside. With a simple connection to your garden hose you achieve mulch and water system all in one. Planting holes can be created in pre-marked, partially perforated locations. This might be a trial product for me for next year. Other flower farmers use it and like it, but on my growing scale, I must always consider costs. FloraFlow has a recycling partner so, even though the product is a plastic product, it is said to be recyclable