Mulching is a little garden task that has a lot of purpose.  Let’s face it, many of us mulch specifically for curb appeal. It really is amazing to drive up to your home and see your freshly mulched landscape and garden. Let’s talk about some gardening functions of mulch. The two big benefits are simple;   it holds in moisture and keeps the weeds down.  After a good watering or rain the mulch protects your plants soil and water. It shades the root zone and protects it from things like wind and sun.  With a 3” layer of mulch, weeds have a much harder time getting started ….or growing at all.  Two main ways weeds show up are perennial weeds that just live in your garden and weeds that  grow lightning fast from seed, then produce amazing amounts of more seeds that readily grow with ease. Three inches of mulch will choke out many of the seeds before they can get big enough for you to see. The  perennial weeds will also struggle from the lack of light and they will be much easier to spot and pull once they pop up!