I put down some wood chips for ground cover. I like the look too..

[._.]

[Chainfire]

1. That looks very nice indeed.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

2. Yes, nice, I do the same... great minds think alike!!

[MOMFUDSKI]

3. Nice.

I am partial to black mulch.

[Bayard]

4. Very nice

I can get bulk cedar mulch from a local Amish saw mill pretty cheap. Smells wonderful. I need to go get a truck load this week.

[WestMichRad]

5. I've used wood chips for mulch

You’ll get some interesting mushrooms a couple years later!

[spinbaby]

8. Stinkhorn!

I get these alien-looking, vaguely obscene things coming up in the mulch. Eventually learned it’s called stinkhorn.

[WestMichRad]

9. And the smell of those is really foul!!

Aptly named.
Fortunately, the shrooms I’ve gotten from wood chip mulch seem to be mainly the toadstool type. Not stinky ones!

[codfisherman]

6. Works good

Most of my half acre lot is garden. The main garden in back is about 3500 sq ft. Years ago I started covering the walkways in hardwood chip. I have an unlimited free supply, but I have to load and haul. Except for deep rooted dandelions (which I like and use) my weeding has been reduced hyperdramatically. The chip cover also keeps the underlying soil cooler and moister, helping out in the neighboring beds. It does harbor slugs, but a billion beneficial insects too.

[Emile]

7. I have a 6 hp wood chipper. I put chips around my strawberry

plants, blueberry bushes, tomato plants, vining garden plants, etc etc. At the end of garden season I till them into the soil and over winter they compost into the soil. Lot less weeds in the garden using wood chips.

[WestMichRad]

10. I have an abundance of leaves

… so that is my primary mulch. All the benefits you’ve described (slugs too, but I’ve learned how to cope with them).