The summer series of the University of Illinois Extension’s Four Seasons Gardening program, which focuses on environmental stewardship, home gardening, and backyard food production, gets underway in July.

The public is invited to participate in this free webinar series. The first session of the series is titled “Beneficial Insects: Garden Warriors.” Gardeners can be blinded by insects that eat their plants without paying attention to insects that act as warriors in the garden by either eating the bad bugs or parasitizing them. Learn the most common ones with Extension Horticulture Educator, Kelly Allsup, and never accidentally kill a good bug again.

This program will be offered via live webinar on Tuesday, July 10 at 1:30 p.m. at three U of I Extension offices: Bureau County in Princeton, Marshall-Putnam counties in Henry and LaSalle County in Ottawa. This webinar may also be viewed at that time from anywhere you have internet access or on Thursday, July 12 at 6:30 p.m. Pre-registration required at go.illinois.edu/4seasons_webinars. Recorded videos of these sessions can be viewed following the program at go.illinois.edu/fourseasonsrecordings.

Other topics in the summer series include “Urban Soil Safety” set for Tuesday, July 31 at 1:30 p.m. and Thursday, Aug. 2 at 6:30 p.m., and “At-Home Micropropagation: In Vitro Plants” set for Tuesday, Aug. 14 at 1:30 p.m. and Thursday, Aug. 16 at 6:30 p.m. The Tuesday 1:30 p.m. sessions will be offered at the local University of Illinois Extension offices in Princeton, Henry and Ottawa.

Each session is free to the public. Advance registration is needed. Phone or e-mail the LaSalle County University of Illinois Extension office for more details at (815) 433-0707 or e-mail Extension Program Coordinator Meg Overocker at meo@illinois.edu.