The sixth month of the year enjoys a most positive reputation. The weather is usually fair, the countryside is green, and before June is over summer has officially begun. For many in our culture one immediate association with this month is the start of summer vacation, as most school children are freed from the classroom and families tend to organize their activities around the kid's schedule. It's also the most popular time to get married. This is an old custom, supposedly dating back to ancient Roman times when the month was named in honor of Juno, the goddess of love and marriage. Father's Day happens in June, as does Juneteenth, D-Day Anniversary, Flag Day, National Cheese Day and World Refrigeration Day, along with a host of other celebrations. I tend to miss all these occasions, however, because June is also the month when the growing season kicks into high gear.

If April is the time of horticultural anxiety and May is when the big green wave hits, June finds us engaged on all fronts, managing best as possible to stay atop a situation where life is surging in every square inch of the natural world. The plants are growing with greater energy than at any other time of year, and along with that comes a rising tide of insect activity and fungal invasion. When I walk through the garden or hoop house in the month of June, every plant seems to need pruning. The plants have to grow, of course. They need to do it for their health and we want them to be healthy, but the vigor with which they grow in the month of June can be overwhelming. The plants we want are not the only ones that will be growing like crazy, either. Weeds are everywhere — in the bonsai pots, in the garden, in the hoop house — and they will be relentless in their efforts to take over the world. With the renewed growth of plants comes a new crop of plant-eating creatures, and each day more evidence turns up of damage done to tender young leaves. Fungus, too, is already at work and if the threat isn't addressed early on the results can be devastating. The bugs and fungus are natural phenomena, part of the web of life, although we tend to think of them as a problem. They are a problem, from our point of view, because they mar the appearance of the plants they feed on, or even destroy them altogether. In gardening we tend to want our nature cleaned up, picture perfect, and we don't want to see dead, diseased or half eaten plants. That same desire is greater still when it comes to bonsai. But it's a hungry world out there, and the greater part of it feeds on plant life and doesn't care at all if the plants in question are in your garden or on your bonsai bench. In fact, sometimes it seems they actually prefer to feed on cultivated plants.

Damage done by two different kinds of chewing insects

Spot fungus and spidermite damage

These activities — keeping up with the pruning and weeding, fighting fungus and holding all the hungry things at bay — would by themselves make June a busy month, but there's more.

As the plants grow with youthful abandon under an increasingly potent sun, they suck up the water. In the garden, which by intention has no irrigation, plants are largely self-reliant when it comes to their water needs. They send their roots out in search of it and regulate their growth in accordance with how much they find. We use plenty of mulch and the mature garden is shady, both factors helping to conserve moisture in the soil by protecting it from evaporation by sun and wind. June is usually fairly dry in Asheville but the ground is typically well watered in April and May, and the residual effect of that earlier rainfall carries us through. The bonsai are a different story. Life in a container is an unnatural paradigm for a plant, and rainfall by itself is not enough over the course of time. Bonsai potting medium is designed for sharp drainage, which has a desirable effect on the growth habit of the little trees, but makes correct watering critically important. On a warm, sunny day, when it hasn't rained the day before, most of the bonsai in our collection need water. We have several times as many plants in our bonsai holdings as the number on display in the garden at any given point. Watering the entire collection takes anywhere from two to three hours per day, and more when conditions are hot and dry. The consequence of incorrect watering — too much or too little — is stress to the plant that can lead to diminished health, greater susceptibility to insects and disease, and even death. Watering is a serious business and June is when that reality begins to make itself felt.

There's another feature of the month of June that strongly impacts the bonsai garden: a dramatic increase in the number of people who come to visit. There is only one reason for the bonsai garden to even exist, and that is to be a pleasurable place for people to experience the wonder of nature through the art of bonsai. That's it. That's why we're there. In June, with its fair weather and people on vacation or just looking to enjoy time outdoors, and the miniature trees and landscapes looking so fresh and attractive after having been mostly out of sight for nearly half a year, the garden fulfills its purpose in a most vibrant way. People come through in droves. As they do, those of us who work in the garden, staff and volunteers alike, engage with them. We talk to them and answer questions, making them feel welcome while collecting their compliments. It seems wrong to call it work, but it is an important part of the job and it does take time. Pruning a tree on display might take an hour, but doing it while engaging with the public on a busy day will take longer than that. Moving through the garden with a hose to do the necessary watering might be a forty five-minute task if the garden is empty, but navigating through on a crowded day, working around the visitors while answering their questions, will inevitably increase the time needed.

June is an active month and it keeps us hopping.

As a closing thought, one significant event that happens about three weeks into the month of June is the Summer Solstice. In ancient times, when our ancestors lived more closely in tune with the rhythms of nature, the Solstice must have meant much more than it does in our present culture. These days the greatest significance typically given the occasion is to note it as the "longest day of the year." Out of three hundred sixty-five days, the Summer Solstice occurs on the one when the sun attains its highest position of travel across the sky, affording us the greatest duration of its light. In our culture we celebrate it as the beginning of summer, and immediately thereafter the length of daylight begins diminishing. But it's the next two months — July and August — that usually feature the greatest heat, and heat is probably our primary association with summertime. Why the difference between the days of longest daylight and the days of greatest heat? It's because the sun is 94.237 million miles from earth and light travels faster!

A fence lizard in the bonsai garden soaks in sunlight that took approximately 8 minutes and 20 seconds to reach the earth

For your enjoyment, a gallery of images made in the bonsai garden as May turned into June: