Welcome to ATP!
I can appreciate your need for low maintenance gardening but wood chips and plants just don't mix. And you would have to replace the woodchips every couple years as they decompose. How about ground covers and low maintenance shrubs?
Ivy (but your shrubs would be engulfed), periwinkle (has pretty blue flowers in the spring), wood violets (won't let the weeds grow)... For shrubs junipers or carpet roses - they never need pruning and fill an area quickly. Junipers are always green but don't bloom. Carpet roses are covered in flowers all summer but go dormant. I would mix shrubs and ground covers together for some interest in your garden.
All these plants are relatively cheap at the big box stores and its spring! The perfect time to find plants and plant plants.
Hopefully, you have a gardener or someone to help you put this all in.
Can you give us a location? Plants respond differently to rainfall amounts and heat.
Daisy
