All chop/drop plants mentioned above are 95% water so very very limited in effect/ Get a pile of wood chips dropped off. Talk to tree trimmers and get some. If you have the space and no HOA then use some to mulch now and leave half to rot in a pile.
No problem but no need to be dismissive, I will explain some of the effects you may be overlooking.
First off, my chop/drop technique really isn't much different from brought in tree trimmer mulch, is it?
Tree trimmer mulch
itself is a chop/drop product, just done off site by others, mechanically sized and hauled in.
Well I only mentioned one plant out of many I use. And yes, it has a very high percentage water, but when consumed by the masses of millipedes on my property it directly becomes manure with a good nitrogen content. Especially when dried, the tree trimmer mulch is mainly carbon, yes that is good too. It has been about a week and I will try to uncover and take a photo of how it works. I also do get tree trimmer mulch for younger systems, 3 loads this week. You get a different profile of nutrients and carbon in fresh material, dry material, and the manure. Some chop/drop trees I am growing will have the huge carbon content which is found in woody mulch.
My goal like the original poster is to not need to haul in or haul around material. It is nice to be able to have your mulch located directly beside the crop you want to protect. Yes, I do begin by bringing in mulch but the goal is to create a self-accumulating ecosystem. Who mulches, irrigates and fertilizes the forest?
Here are two pics of systems I use. One uses a border of lemongrass which, when cut, does dry down to mainly carbon. The other is a tree row bordered by the legume Cajan cajanus (pigeon pea). Grown in place mulches have other benefits which tree trimmer mulch applied on the surface don't have. They break wind flow influencing evapotranspiration. They protect the soil from sun differently from mulch to provide direct shade not only for the soil but also for the plants, it is an open layered shade which mulch doesn't exactly provide. The legumes actually have roots which capture nitrogen from the air through nodulation. When the legumes are cut, the root mass sheds nitrogen at the same time the branches and leaves (also rich in nitrogen) become mulch in the chop/drop process. Further, while brought in mulch does cover the soil just like chop/drop mulch does it doesn't have the accompanying root system tht plants have. That unseen root system can represent an equal mass to the above ground mass working deep into the soil, creating nutrient pathways through soil & even decomposing to feeding soil life.
So I am getting getting multiple benefits tree trimmer mulch doesn't give, these benefits of these methods are considerable.
Pigeon peas:
Lemongrass: