good golly, you will have to learn to do things more cheaply. a
gardener? bags of mulch from the store? Miracle Gro?

as for the wood chips (which anybody in the world gets for free), at
the end of the season they are still wood chips. Depending on their
size, it takes them two to four years to fully become soil. Meanwhile,
you have very few weeds but can not plant from seeds (if you plant
plants, you do not care). My front beds, which got one foot eight years
ago, have established perennials that quickly suffocate the weeds. They
only need one light weeding a year, and even that would be a lot
lighter if my hickories did not drop nuts in there. Veggie beds
typically have a three year respite from weeds when woodchipped.