All:

I am a novice when it comes to gardening and landscaping....

I have fairly large patch of dirt and weeds in front of my house --
about 40 x 6' (240 sq. feet). I've ordered some mulch and will be
spreading it soon...

So... how do I best get the ground ready to accept the mulch (I don't
want to be pulling weed out of the mulch for the rest of my natural
life, so I assume I need to rid myself of them in some permanent way)?

My thoughts:
* I can pull all the weeds (would take many many hours)
* I can use a chemical to kill them (I'd prefer not too, though - I'd
like to plant some trees, etc. soon and do not want to poison the
ground)

* I can...what else...? Neither of the above seem particularly
effective ---

Is this a time when you rototill the soil to "rip up" all the weed and
their root systems?

Any help appreciated...

Thanks,
John
jpuopolo