Love gardens, hate mulch

Hello from the lost world of Blogs. I haven't updated in months because after tax season, school picked up pace pretty quickly. But now it is summer and life is mine again. We planted our garden in May and it is really coming along nicely. Carrots, onions, lettuce, spinach, 4 kinds of bean, zucchini and tomatoes. We have corn but I am not hoping for too much. Last year we purchase two rehabbed olive barrels that are now used to collect rain water. We travel during the summer and we need a way to water the garden. These work great. I set up a drip line from the barrels and away we go and then come home to a lush garden. Today is the day I dread most. Mulch day! It is such a necessary evil. I hate weeds. We also have a number of frogs and toad, chipmunks and other wildlife around here. Three years ago we had toads that kept escaping to our driveway. We kept putting them back in the mulch. Only by them finally giving up did we realize that they were being killed by the dye in the mulch. So this year it is undyed bark mulch for us. Well off to mulch.