The cool crisp air of October is here and the weather has been very enjoyable with mild temperatures overall. The children are settled into their school routine and this is the unofficial start of the holiday season. The holiday season starts with Halloween and north jersey delivers with ubiquitous holiday displays installed on homes and businesses. There is also the simultaneous Harvest season with displays of pumpkins bundles of hay. Even the trees get into the act displaying their colorful “Autumn Lights”.
Despite it’s name “Oriental Spicebush” is non-invasive and is is native to Northern New Jersey. Oriental Spicebush is a vital host plant for the spicebush swallowtail butterfly, the eastern tiger swallowtail, and the promethea silkmoth. Its nutrient-dense red berries are a primary food source for migrating songbirds.
Fall Yard Cleanup!
October has been fairly mild with daytime temperatures within a very comfortable range. But now is the when our yards fill up with falling leaves. Our gardens need a bit of tending too. We have collected and stacked our tomato cages. We also rolled up our chicken wire garden fences.
We began cleaning up our leaves although the trees have many more. We use two leaf blowers, an electric leaf blower as well as a gas powered leaf blower. We use our cordless electric leaf blower leaf blower to quickly clean our decks and walkways. Cordless battery operated lawn equipment has greatly improved since it was introduced. Powerful, longer lasting batteries mean a lawn project can be completed on a single charge. We recently started using a cordless lawn mower and are impressed light weight and quiet operation, cutting smoothly .through tall grass and weeds. the cordless leaf blowers works just as well as our lawn mower. WE are using our gas leaf blower for lawn cleanup, it is a bit more powerful than the electric version.
