Penn State Master Gardeners of Bucks County

08/21/2026

💡LIGHTS OUT BUCKS COUNTY

Birds heading south migrate after dark. With the lack of predators, and the cooler night time temperatures, night makes for the best navigation as they can use the celestial clues like stars and the moon to find their way.

But they need our help.

Excessive lighting can disorient birds causing them to fly in circles and deplete their energy.

🛑AVOID LIGHT POLLUTION
👇Which tips will you incorporate?

🙏 for this lead goes to Susan Harrison, Penn State Master Gardener, Bucks County

Earth’s night and day cycle controls wildlife behaviors such as migration, reproduction, feeding, sleep, and protection from predators.

Artificial light pollution can disrupt these behaviors and impact wildlife — especially birds and bats.

Check out these tips to help eliminate light pollution around your home.

Learn more: https://darksky.org/news/light-pollution-and-the-beginner-astronomer/

08/21/2026

🫜 IT’S LATE AUGUST AND THE BEET GOES ON! But September is coming. Are you ready to evolve and change?

Our gardens are always evolving and changing, and as gardeners, we're always learning and evolving with them. 🌱

👇 What new thing might you try when September comes? Drop us a comment!

08/19/2026

BACK TO SCHOOL FOR ALL 🤓⏰📚

Entomology 102 explores insects and arthropods. 🕷️. Pests, pollinators, beneficial species—their ecological role in Pennsylvania.

Are you sharpening your pencils yet? 👇

Live webinar series

08/18/2026

🫜 WHO KNEW? SO MUCH EXCITMENT ABOUT BEETS?

This Master Gardener has always believed a garden should bloom, bloom, and bloom some more. 🌸

But this year, the garden took a surprising turn—underground!

Sure, there were some rookie mistakes but the path led to a successful harvest, a delicious Penn State Extension recipe, and enough enthusiasm to plant another round for fall.

🫜🥗🫜

(1) There are as many different types of gardens as there are gardeners. For me, gardening has always been all about an abundance of flowers. Even the herbs in my garden were grown for their flowers. Tall flowers, short flowers, scented flowers, flowering trees, flowering vines, flowering shrubs...to win a place in my garden required producing a bloom of some merit! This had as much to do with space as it did for my love of flowers, since my previous gardens were small urban plots. But now in Bucks County, I've got a little room to grow, and have discovered the joy of planting something where the show happens primarily underground.

(2) This season I grew beets for the very first time—Beta vulgaris, Detroit dark red beets—harvested with Aethum graveolens, common dill (grown for the swallowtail butterflies). I container sowed the beet seeds in early March and planted them out in April in a raised bed filled with potting soil and compost.

(3) Some of the beets were on the smaller side because I didn't do a very good job of thinning out the seedlings. More is more in my garden.

(4) What to do with the beets? What do I know, I'm a flower gardener? Penn State Extension to the rescue! I boiled, then pickled them. Absolutely delicious.
👉Learn more: https://extension.psu.edu/red-beets

(5) I was so happy with my experiment that I immediately planted more beet seeds for a fall harvest and will be trying to grow snap peas in the future.

Our gardens are always evolving and changing, and as gardeners, we're always learning and evolving with them. 🌱

👇 What new thing did you try in your garden this year? Drop us a comment!

✍️+📸: Donna Lipton, Penn State Master Gardener, Bucks County

08/16/2026

🍄🐿️ STRANGE, CUTE & TOTALLY NATURAL!

Master Gardeners are out and about—and our cameras are catching some fascinating finds around Bucks County!

🍄WHAT’S WITH THE ‘SHROOMS?

Rain + humidity = perfect mushroom weather! These fungi are nature’s cleanup crew, breaking down things like old roots, wood and other organic matter while recycling nutrients back into the soil.

When they’re found in a ring, that’s a fairy ring—a natural pattern created as a fungal colony expands outward.

⚠️ Most mushrooms aren’t a problem, but some can be poisonous. Keep curious kids and pets away from unknown fungi.

🥰NOW FOR THE CUTENESS
🐿️ Eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus): adorable mulch excavator and professional nut hoarder.
🐰 Eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus): caught red-pawed just after enjoying a garden snack!

📸 Thanks to Cathy Raupp, Cindy Glass, Penn State Master Gardeners of Bucks County, and our community photographers for sharing their garden discoveries!

What strange, surprising or adorable creature have YOU spotted in your garden lately? 👀👇

08/16/2026

Who’s ready to be a style setter?🐝🌳🤩

🌳🐦🦋 𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐚 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐜 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐬 & 𝐬𝐡𝐫𝐮𝐛𝐬 for our pollinators & wildlife - and extra chic as a sustainable gift! Our sale runs until August 25th or until sold out. Free shipping - pick up at your local Extension office just in time for fall planting. Here's the full catalog:
https://web.cvent.com/event/3c0b0581-20ae-402b-b263-157dc55eee8f/websitePage:8ac81c70-278f-4770-ab33-e26a32e51e07

08/15/2026

THERE'S STILL TIME TO VISIT!
🌼🌳🍅🐛🐝🐜
Stop by the Bucks County Master Gardeners booth for a chat! Let's talk plants!

Penn State Master Gardeners are here for you. 🫵

MASTER GARDENERS BOOTH
Saturday 10am-7pm
Sunday 10am-1pm

See you soon!
Photos: Abby Stocking, Penn State Master Gardener Coordinator, Bucks County

08/15/2026

THERE'S STILL TIME TO VISIT!
🌼🌳🍅🐛🐝🐜
When you visit the Grange, stop by the Bucks County Master Gardeners booth for a chat! Whether you want to talk soil, trees, flowers, bugs or the weather, Penn State Master Gardeners will dig in for a deep conversation so you can have a successful garden.

We're here for you. 🫵

MASTER GARDENERS BOOTH
Saturday 10am-7pm
Sunday 10am-1pm

🐝🌸🦋
AND Don’t miss one of the Grange's favorite stops: the children’s activity table at the Bucks County Master Gardeners exhibit.

This year the kids (& their adults 😉) are really enjoying creating a design on coffee filters, pulling it together, and making their own butterflies that will live it up in every native plant garden from Bensalem to Quakertown — and every backyard in between.

The best part? It’s 💯FREE! 😊

CHILDREN’S ACTIVITY TABLE
Saturday 11am-4pm

See you soon!
Photos: Kathleen Kimble, Penn State Master Gardener, Bucks County

08/14/2026

🌿The Weekly Garden Report — August 13, 2026 🌿

🌱Growing Degree Days (GDD): 2307 GDD - ~50 ahead of last year
🌡️Soil temps (5-day avg): 77°F - 1° above LY
⏰Soil temps (24-hr avg): 77°F - 2° lower than LY

⛈️THE RAINS CAME—& BUCKS COUNTY IS FEELING THE DIFFERENCE!

After a 6-day heat wave & several rounds of storms, we finally have some good drought news! 🌧️

Our Growing Degree Days (GDDs) are slightly ahead of both last year & our 15-year average for this point in the season. Soil temperatures, however, are right around normal.

🌱 THE BIG NEWS: Recent rainfall has improved drought conditions across the county. Most of Bucks County is now classified as abnormally dry.

And summer isn't over! We have roughly another month of relatively high GDD accumulation before temps cool and GDD accumulation begins to slow as fall advances.

🦋MONARCHS ARE ON THE MOVE
If you've been seeing lots of monarchs & monarch caterpillars this summer, you're not alone! Bucks County has had a large number. Soon, these unique insects will begin their migration south.

Their annual migration is an amazing phenomenon. They are the only butterfly known to make a two-way annual migration, much like migratory birds. Because monarchs cannot survive freezing northern winters, they must travel south to overwinter.

Some travel up to 3,000 miles, using a combination of environmental cues, air currents, & thermals to help them along the way. 🦋

😎And here's something you may not know: monarchs migrate only during daylight. At night, they need a safe place to rest. As temps drop in autumn, monarchs may gather by the hundreds—or even thousands—in sheltered roosting sites, often in trees such as pines, firs, and cedars. These dense canopies help moderate temperature and humidity.

When morning arrives, the butterflies bask in the sun to warm their bodies before taking flight again. ☀️

💬 Have you noticed monarchs—or monarch caterpillars—in your garden this summer? Tell us what you're seeing in the comments!

👇 See the photo captions for more monarch facts and information.

✍️: Jim Walter, PhD, Penn State Master Gardener & Master Watershed Steward, Bucks County

08/13/2026

So much summer fun and smiles for miles with our children’s craft table at the Grange Fair!

Swing by today through Saturday, 11am to 4pm to decorate your paper pollinator friend. 🦋