MARQUETTE — Michigan State University Extension is offering Free Online Smart Gardening Series Topics include beekeeping, pollinator-friendly landscapes, wildlife damage management, good and bad bugs in your vegetable garden, and using fresh produce for flavored water.

Sign up for one or all. Free online sessions will be held on Tuesday evenings, June 9, 16, 23, and 30 from 7-8:30 p.m. Registration is required by Monday for the Tuesday’s session. Go to: https://events.anr.msu.edu/SmartGardeningSeries/

The series includes:

≤ Tuesday — First Year Colonies: Getting Ready for Bees with Dr. Adam Ingrao, Veteran’s Liaison and Agriculture Entomologist, Beekeeping is a fun and rewarding endeavor but is not something to just jump into. In this session we discuss the nature of modern beekeeping and how to prepare to become a beekeeper. We will discuss educational resources, basic equipment, hive styles, supplies, site selection, and give you an overview of a season for a first-year beekeeper.

≤ June 16 — 7-7:45 p.m. Creating Pollinator Friendly Landscapes, Jackie Manchester-Kempke, Advanced Extension Master Gardener – How Smart Gardening taught me to enhance my yard and to value goldenrod. What I kept and what I have added to provide full-season pollinator nourishment.

≤ June 16– 7:45-8:30 p.m. Wildlife Damage Management in the Home Garden with James Dedecker, Director of

Upper Peninsula Research and Extension Center. Wildlife can reduce the beauty and productivity of home gardens through feeding, digging and rubbing. Attend this session to learn how to manage wildlife damage in ways that are effective and economical.

≤ June 23– 7-8 p.m. Insects in the Vegetable Garden: Helping the good bugs fight the bad with Dr. Nathaniel Walton, MSU Extension Consumer Horticulture Program Instructor. Many insects, like pollinators, are essential in the garden. While others are garden pests that eat our fruits and veggies. By learning about their life cycles, behaviors, and the good bugs that eat them, you can implement tactics in your garden to outsmart these pesky critters.

≤ June 23 — 8-8:30 p.m. U.P. Hotline Responder Team introduction and garden questions coordinated by Rebecca Krans, MSU Extension Consumer Horticulture Educator, with specially trained Extension Master Gardeners

≤ June 30 — 7-8:30 p.m. How to use fruits and vegetables with Stephanie Meck, MSUE Nutrition Program Instructor –Now that I’ve grown it, what can I make with it.