Cocoa bean mulch smells wonderful, blocks weeds, is organic, and breaks down to enrich the soil. The bad thing is that some dogs will eat it and get sick. Unfortunately the dog on the other side of my backyard fence is one of those (his owner is a vet so I believe her when she says he was getting at it under the fence) so I'm not able to use it in the garden by the fence until he moves (his house is for sale now but I don't think he's working at it since it has been on the market several months). I haven't seen anything about cocoa mulch being dangerous to wildlife.

I still use cocoa mulch in the deck flowerbox. It smells like a garden of brownies.

--Beth