The bulbs are beginning to come up and things are starting to move again after the long and particularly cold dark of winter. There are signs of spring everywhere so now is the perfect time to cut back the garden and mulch the beds.
Soil shouldn't be left exposed to the elements. Look to the natural world and you'll see there are very few patches of bare soil. It's almost always covered with plants of one form or another. It seems to be a hangover of the victorian age where we think garden beds should be dug over and the spaces between plants left bare. This will lead to rapid drying out of the soil through evaporation and a breakdown of the biosphere in soil that we now know contributes so much to soil and plant health.
If there are areas of open ground between herbaceous plants after they have been cut back, covering that area with a mulch of organic compost is the best thing you can do before spring gets going. It will suppress weeds, feed the micro-organisms, improve soil structure. Also not digging into the soil will maintain the network of fungi in the soil that is so vital.
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