Shadegardener: It does seem like you might be doing a lot of unnecessary work, and also that you might need more wood included in your mulch mix. Also you might want to grow some cover crops in the summer to provide additional nutrients. Think diversity, not just one or two ingredients.
I think permaculture is about learning how to build an ecological system out of the plants you want in your back yard (or back 40 if you have it). I also think Americans have a hard time understanding the systemic interactions that go into the design of a backyard ecosystem. For a permaculture beginner I would recommend any and all of Bill Mollison's works--the Tasmanian founder of the permaculture concept. In the US Toby Hemenway's ideas have been central to the permaculture revolution here.
As for learning about mulch, what and how to do it, you might enjoy the chop and drop forum at Permies.com.
http://www.permies.com/t/4124/...
You can post questions there also.
Here are a couple of my articles that reflect my own early learning about Permaculture.
Another chop and drop video on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
