{"id":41,"date":"2012-02-24T10:27:20","date_gmt":"2012-02-24T16:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.phantomimages.com\/blogs\/gardening\/?page_id=41"},"modified":"2012-02-24T10:27:20","modified_gmt":"2012-02-24T16:27:20","slug":"about-me","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.phantomimages.com\/blogs\/gardening\/about-me\/","title":{"rendered":"About me"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_43\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-43\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.phantomimages.com\/blogs\/gardening\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Family1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-43\" title=\"Family\" src=\"http:\/\/www.phantomimages.com\/blogs\/gardening\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Family1-300x237.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"237\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.phantomimages.com\/blogs\/gardening\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Family1-300x237.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.phantomimages.com\/blogs\/gardening\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Family1.jpg 604w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-43\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Family up in Michigan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I come from a long line of creative individuals having a great deal of respect for the ability of the human mind to think up remarkable things. My grandma used to always ask me with excitement, &#8220;Isn&#8217;t the mind fascinating?!?&#8221; Personally, I believe that creative, out-of-the-box thinking was a requirement in our family &#8211; one common answer to many questions I had growing up was, &#8220;What do you think?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But deep down, there will always be this yearning to dig the dirt, grow something nummy and eat it. And&#8230; if you happen to come across something you know is edible, pick it and eat it&#8230; then keep on walking. Grandma frequently made me eat things she&#8217;d pick off some random plant and then ask me to tell her how it tasted. After I did, I&#8217;d get a short history lesson on the plant, what it used to be used for and how horrid it was that the flavor was now synthetically made &#8211; but, that it was also fascinating that the flavor COULD be made in that fashion. (Remember, the mind is fascinating!)<\/p>\n<p>I believe it was with great fortune that my mother moved me out of the border town of El Centro, Calfornia and planted us in southern Kansas in the mid-70&#8217;s. Although, as a teenager, I really hated the work involved, I&#8217;m sure it was the farming and growing food that brought this yearning I have now to the surface much later in my life.<\/p>\n<p>So, when I moved to Round Rock, Texas in 2007 for a job as a systems engineer, I had to have a garden. What started out as a few tomato plants in big pots back then resulted in me ripping up 1\/3 of my back yard and creating a 21&#8217;x56&#8242; raised-bed garden to satisfy this desire that is embedded in my genes. One of my aunts frequently states that she &#8220;loves how our family members are basically farmers at heart.&#8221; It&#8217;s true!<\/p>\n<p>With that background, the purpose of this blog is to get down my thoughts on gardening down here in Texas, where I have the fortune of a very long growing season. (In the case of some plants, it&#8217;s all year!) Every tidbit of information I can find will go down on these pages.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m a stickler for organic gardening so if you want tips on what chemicals to use to get rid of this bug or that fungus, don&#8217;t come here. However, if you&#8217;d like to hear how neato red wrigglers make the best compost around AND help get rid of your garbage, this is the place for you. Don&#8217;t get me wrong. I&#8217;m not perfect. My stuff gets infested and dies also&#8230;. I&#8217;ll document it (with pictures), post what I&#8217;m trying to do, and if any of you have suggestions, by all means comment!<\/p>\n<p>Anyhow&#8230; I hope you enjoy what I do and come back frequently. Say howdy every so often!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I come from a long line of creative individuals having a great deal of respect for the ability of the human mind to think up remarkable things. My grandma used to always ask me with excitement, &#8220;Isn&#8217;t the mind fascinating?!?&#8221; Personally, I believe that creative, out-of-the-box thinking was a requirement in our family &#8211; one &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.phantomimages.com\/blogs\/gardening\/about-me\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">About me<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-41","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P2f0m9-F","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phantomimages.com\/blogs\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/41","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phantomimages.com\/blogs\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phantomimages.com\/blogs\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phantomimages.com\/blogs\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phantomimages.com\/blogs\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.phantomimages.com\/blogs\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/41\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51,"href":"https:\/\/www.phantomimages.com\/blogs\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/41\/revisions\/51"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phantomimages.com\/blogs\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}