Pacific Topsoils arrived this afternoon with six yards of their medium bark. It looks great–just what I needed. Leon and I spread about two yards already when the rain chased us back in the house. The bark will be spread deeply on the bare grass area and less deeply on the areas that already have soil covering the grass. The goal of the bark is to kill the underlying grass and to keep any weeds from growing in the garden before the native plants take hold.
The other good thing about the bark is that it will add some organic matter as it decomposes and start building up a layer of litter for critters to hide and hunt in.