If there 's one singular thing you can do for their garden or landscape- one simple action you can take that could potentially bring your plants back to life and prevent current and future disasters, it 's mulching. And I 'm not necessarily talking about pre colored cypress bark that you see surrounding lonely barberries in a Target parking lot. I 'm talking about real mulching with real, workable materials that your plants will eventually be able to benefit from. Granted, painted chunks of wood still have the potential to break down into the soil eventually, but the process is slow and ugly and isn 't meant to serve the purposes that mulch should be serving. So, what kinds of mulches are best and why is mulch so good for your garden? If you 've ever taken a hike through an undisturbed forest, or stopped to really look at what 's going on under that "messy" tree of yours in the fall, you 'll get a better understanding of what mulch is and what it 's meant to do. Look on the ground. What do you see? Depending on the time of year, you 'll see something different. Most notably, in the fall, you 'll see a colorful blanket of spent leaves, covering everything they land on. If they do this on your lawn, you may see a problem. In the forest, those leaves are far from a problem. They 're a necessary and welcome part of the ecosystem. Mother Nature doesn 't do anything by accident. Those fallen leaves are full of all the necessary nutrients that the plants and animals in the soil