If you're thinking about mulching your garden, this is a great time to do it.

Mulch now and help regulate soil temperature, prevent weeds and build up your soil.

"It's going to help your soil temperatures, basically," said Ray Knight, landscape supervisor for the City of Urbana. "It's going to help hold the soil in the ground."

Martha Smith, a University of Illinois Extension horticulture educator, said in a press release it actually insulates the ground from temperature fluctuations.

It will also help prevent weeds from sprouting in the spring, he said.

"Any weed seeds that might be laying on the bare soil, you're keeping them from germinating in the spring because you have a cover over them," Knight said.

You'll want a thick layer of mulch, Knight said, about 3 or 4 inches.

He suggests a shredded mulch, which might be from hardwood brush, chipped mulch from tree crews or "even shredded leaves could work as a mulch."

He said he recently read an article about a woman who shredded her leaves with a lawnmower and used them as mulch.

Smith has more suggestions.

"Organic mulches include leaves, wood chips, hardwood and softwood bark, cocoa hulls, compost, pine needles, and a variety of other materials derived from plants," she said. "Organic mulches decompose in the landscape at different rates depending on the material. Those that decompose faster must be replenished more often."

Decomposition improves soil quality and fertility, which is another good reason to mulch your garden.

Knight said it's just about the best thing you can do for your garden, whether it's a perennial garden, a vegetable garden or even an annual garden.

"Any time you get it down you're benefitting the soil," Knight said. "Mulch makes a huge difference."