Red and Black all over

I am learning things about my rubber mulch. I peeked under the edges and I found weeds! Little bitty weeds but weeds! I put the mulch down to prevent weeds and there they were! All weedy and nutrient sucking. They are little, tiny weeds, more like weedlets. They look like the tiny plants that sprout from bird seed but I was under the impression that the mulch was supposed to  stop that.  I guess its more about repression than complete suppression.

I have also learned about the difference in the mulches. The fancy, high-tech super cool red mulch is not doing the weed repression that I like to see. I wasn't really all that shocked by the bird seed but  there was a damn pecan tree sprouted under there! I don't even have a pecan tree! Some squirrel demon was able to get under there and bury that nut unmolested. I hate that. I checked under the black mulch and while I found bird seed sprouts, I did not find any pecan trees. The red stuff also holds water in  mosqueto friendly pools while the black stuff lets the water soak through. Many points to the black mulch.

I am hoping that the fancy stuff causes my tomatoes to produce like gangbusters this year because if it doesn't do something other than provide a good nursery environment for pecan trees? Next year I'm going with the cheap black stuff. The red stuff wasn't cheap.

In the red stuffs favor, most of the tomato plants are larger and more leafy than their pepper peers, but that could be just a difference in the plants and rates of maturation and all that.  But. I think all the plants regardless of type , seem larger than last years batch. I did notice that something is munching on my broccali babies though and we can't have that. I want to try ladybugs but it's not like I can  set up tiny electric fences and bitty border guards to make sure they stay put in my yard and its' not that I don't want to share the ladybug joy with the neighborhood but... I would see them as my employees and they first priorty would be me, if they want to do outside contract work, well, we could work it out when the time comes. But before the labor neogotions start, I'll also have to see how much it costs to let lose the ladybugs of war, if its the same or cheaper than regular pesticide I'm willing to experiment with  the cutesy, warm and fuzzy, green organic-y vibe... but if it's a fortune I'm going to go back to the tried and true skull and crossbones method of pest control. Not warm and fuzzy. Note cute.

Does anyone know why I feel that I should be putting egg shells in my garden? Does this do anything for them or is it  rat bait?