ground cover - yay or nay?

[SkodaLabia]

I'm making a new garden (hello to everyone who helped on the last thread, I've calmed down now ). There are lots of gaps between the plants I've put in, which of course will fill out, but I'm wondering about ground cover.

The style of the garden is Japanese/foliage. Stuff like fatsia, cherry trees, ferns. I was thinking about bark chips but a neighbour has pointed out it gets pretty windy here sometimes and that the ones she has are constantly blowing everywhere.

Japanese spurge? Or go bare and weed a lot?

I bought mulch from a company called Compost Direct. It is very good quality. It is a little similar to bark but much lighter. It gives a very natural look to the garden and the worms are already taking it down to the soil underneath. As a bonus if gives of a really heavenly earthy smell and prevents water evaporation.