Question
Mark,

I am getting ready to start working on my back yard.  Half of the yard is just mud due to shade and rainwater problems.  I am planning to add some fill dirt and make it so the yard slopes slightly to not allow  rain to collect.  I am thinking about using wood chips like they use in playgrounds on the muddy part of the yard.  Someone suggested to me that decorator rocks would be better.  I don't want anything real fancy.  I just want a nice yard for my kids to play in.  What suggestions do you have?  Is there anything I should consider when it comes to the wood chips?
Thank you for your time.
Tanya

Answer
Tanya,

I think you're right.  Go with the wood chips.  Over time, both the chips and the decorator rocks will sink into the soil.  Chips will break down eventually, but the rocks don't, and would create an increasingly hard area, that would be more difficult to deal with when the kids have stopped using the play area and you want to convert to another use.   A thick layer of chips is quite cushiony also.

The only other things I can think of are...
? get enough chips so the layer is thick (4-6") and lasts.  This provides the cushion, and also helps suppress some weeds by blocking light.
?Don't get suckered  into the "landscapers weed preventing cloth" or anything else like that, to put down under the chips.  It  doesn't work for long, and leaves you with an inconvenient ugly thing that keeps coming up from under the chips.
? When I have to control weeds in areas like this I either just weed regularly (weeding is fundamental), rather than letting it get away from me, or if I have just have a brief time and a lot of little weeds, I'll spray vinegar on them.  It works and doesn't hurt your kids.

For what it's worth,
Mark in Portland