Sheboygan County Master Gardeners

06/06/2026

Before you swat the striped insect on the flower — half the time it's not even what you think.

Mid-May is when pollinators and stinging wasps both peak in the same garden. They look similar, they're near the same flowers, and most people react before they look. Some of the most wasp-like insects can't sting at all. And among the actual wasps, most are valuable predators when their nests aren't in your walkway.

🌿 Leave these — they're pollinating your garden:

- Honeybee — golden-brown body with darker bands, fuzzy, often carrying visible orange pollen on the hind legs. Calm unless directly threatened. Visits almost every flower in the garden

- Bumblebee — large, very fuzzy, black with yellow bands. She vibrates certain flowers — tomatoes, blueberries, peppers — at a specific frequency to shake pollen loose. No other common pollinator does this. Native species and worth protecting

- Mason bee — solitary native bee with a metallic blue-black body, about honeybee-sized. Nests in hollow stems, not hives. Doesn't swarm, doesn't defend territory. Pollinates far more effectively per individual than a honeybee because she's messier — pollen falls off her belly at every stop

- Hover fly — looks like a small wasp but is a fly with no stinger. Two wings instead of four, huge eyes, hovers perfectly still then darts. The larvae eat aphids. She's wearing a wasp costume she borrowed and never pays for

🐝 Be aware of these — beneficial predators, but give nests distance:

- Yellowjacket — sleek bright-yellow-and-black bands, narrow waist, much less fuzzy than a bee. Ground or wall nests. She's a beneficial predator of flies and caterpillars through spring and summer. Late summer is the aggressive window — the colony shifts to scavenging sweet food and drinks. Give ground nests a wide berth; only remove if the entrance is in a high-traffic path

- Bald-faced hornet — large black body with white face markings. Basketball-sized gray paper nests hanging from branches or eaves. Voracious predator of flies all summer. Aggressive only near the nest — largely indifferent at a distance. Locate the nest and give it space; remove only if it's near a doorway or play area

- European paper wasp — yellow-and-black banded with long legs dangling in flight. Invasive across most of the US. Important detail for butterfly gardeners: paper wasps are significant predators of monarch caterpillars. If you're growing milkweed for monarchs, remove paper wasp nests nearby. In areas without butterfly habitat, the nests can stay — the wasps eat other garden pests

- European hornet — large brown-and-yellow, active at night around porch lights. Less aggressive than yellowjackets. Reducing outdoor lighting at night limits attraction

🌱 The one-second read:

- Hovering perfectly still over a flower = hover fly. Can't sting
- Fuzzy and round on a flower = bee. Not defensive while feeding
- Sleek with a narrow waist near a ground hole or wall gap = yellowjacket. Give the nest distance
- Aggressive flying-at-your-face = you're near a nest. Back away calmly. Don't swat — swatting triggers defense pheromones that bring more

Also in your garden and mostly harmless: carpenter bees, metallic green sweat bees, leafcutter bees that cut neat circles from rose leaves for their nests, and dozens of solitary natives that don't swarm or defend.

The pollinator and the stinger wear the same stripes. The difference takes one second to read 🌿

06/06/2026

Six plants that grow along trails, roadsides, and fence lines in most of the eastern US. You've probably walked past at least three of them this week without knowing.

Poison ivy is the one most people recognize — three glossy leaflets, vine or shrub, and the urushiol oil that causes the rash is on every surface of the plant year-round including winter stems.

🌿 The two most people miss: wild parsnip has yellow umbrella flowers and a sap that causes severe burns when skin is exposed to sunlight afterward. She looks like a harmless wildflower. And pokeweed — magenta stems, purple berries — is toxic in every part of the plant, but birds eat the ripe berries safely. Over thirty species feed on them.

Poison hemlock has smooth stems with purple blotches. Giant hogweed is the size of a person with white umbrella flowers — if you find one, report it to your county extension office. Bittersweet nightshade has red berries on a vine and purple flowers that look like tiny tomato blossoms — same family.

The chart has a three-second rule set at the bottom. Purple blotches on the stem, three leaflets, yellow umbrella flowers, or massive size — each one tells you what to do next 🐾

06/03/2026

A single tree frog or American toad sheltering near your vegetable bed eats several hundred insects per night through the growing season. This setup costs about $5 in materials and takes 15 minutes to build. 🌿

A frog hotel is a terracotta pot filled with rocks, a small amount of standing water, and several short PVC pipe sections standing upright. Frogs climb in during the day for shade and humidity, then emerge at dusk to hunt. In the photos, green tree frogs are using exactly this setup — looking up from inside the tubes is one of those genuinely satisfying garden discoveries.

What you need: a wide terracotta pot (10–12 inches across), small smooth river rocks, enough water to cover the bottom inch of the pot, four to six sections of 1.5 to 2 inch diameter PVC pipe cut to 6–8 inch lengths, and optionally a small shade plant or a piece of burlap to reduce direct sun on the pot.

Building it: place rocks in the bottom of the pot to create a stable base. Add just enough water to cover the bottom of the rocks — a shallow puddle, not a pond. Stand the PVC tubes upright on the rocks, slightly angled or at different heights so frogs can choose depth and position. Place in a shaded spot against a garden wall, under a shrub, or tucked between raised beds. The key is location: full sun dries it out too fast and frogs won't use it.

Maintenance: refill the water every 3–4 days during dry weather. Rinse the pot monthly. In cold climates, bring it inside or empty it before hard frost — most tree frogs overwinter under bark and leaf litter naturally.

What it attracts: American green tree frogs, Pacific tree frogs, spring peepers, and American toads all use shelters like this in different regions of the US. Each one hunts a different mix of garden pests. 🐸

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06/02/2026

06/01/2026

Time to prune your lilac shrub. https://www.ruralsprout.com/prune-lilac/?fbclid=IwdGRjcASJy7BleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEe8-4FlnazLY9I7P0GNYbK_mz5tmXpz7h1XqQCZSRsTC1T96zLHz14Nnulyto_aem_f9D8_4yKsQUBey_JEDKiGQ

It's important to prune lilacs at the right time. Here's when and how to do it for gorgeous, lilac blooms every spring.

06/01/2026

On Friday, a group of volunteers filled the courtyard raised beds with vegetable plants, seeds and flowers, at Pine Haven Christian Communities in Sheboygan Falls. Some of the residents helped plant the beds. We all shared stories of gardening experiences. So many of the residents reminisced of gardening with their parents as they were growing up.
Thanks to our volunteers and to Michelle W and Jodi E for helping arrange this event!

05/28/2026

The wasp building a small open nest under your eave isn't the one that stings at picnics. That's a different species entirely.

Paper wasps build small, visible nests with open hexagonal cells — usually a dozen adults, not aggressive away from the nest, and they hunt garden caterpillars to feed their young.

Yellowjackets build hidden nests underground or inside walls. Colonies reach thousands by late summer. They're the ones at the soda can, the hamburger, the trash can. They sting repeatedly.

The quick read: open nest under the eave with visible cells = paper wasp, leave it. Wasp at your plate interested in your food = yellowjacket, different animal entirely.

The nest most people spray is the species that rarely stings and eats garden pests. The species that actually causes problems nests where you can't see it.

05/26/2026

Shade plants for you to plant