People think of mulch as something that gives their garden beds a uniform look, but that’s not why you need it. Mulch, when applied properly, provides an insulating layer that protects your plants from extreme weather, keeps your soil from drying out, and returns nutrition to your beds as it decomposes. It’s a lot of work to get mulch in place, so it can be frustrating to think of it as temporary. But mulch breaks down—that’s how it’s supposed to. Many people complain about their mulch blowing away, but luckily, this is a solvable problem.

The surface of your soil is fragile. It is exposed to the sun and can dry out easily. It is exposed to the wind, which can blow it away if you do not have plant roots to anchor it. We now experience extreme weather conditions all the time, including heat domes in the summer and extreme ice in the winter, all of which can wreak havoc on your plants. A healthy three to six inch layer of mulch can really make a difference.

You want to make sure that this organic material that you choose is pulled away from the stems of your plants. (Mulch should also not be touching tree trunks.) You want your plants to be planted in the ground, not in the mulch, and each plant has a natural spot where it needs to be buried in the ground, because it is either from the nursery or growing naturally, and the mulch would suffocate the plants. Pulling away the mulch creates a well around the base of the plants, which is perfect for watering.

Large stores often sell bags of dyed mulch. This mulch has three problems that make it a poor choice: the dye itself, which fades and adds a chemical to your beds; the lack of nutrients; and finally, people don’t put down enough of it and a thin layer won’t do much. This dyed mulch can look great at first, but again, that’s not the point of mulch and the dye will quickly fade anyway. Sometimes people put down plastic in front of the mulch or landscape cloth, and that’s not recommended either. The plastic will break down; it usually doesn’t suppress weeds as well as you might think; and it introduces microplastics into your beds. Removing that plastic by picking it up is also a miserable process.