Introduction
I am Bob the Gardener. A nature lover who thrives on observing the amazing life that surrounds us every day. Growing and maintaining a garden is work, but work that comes with the joy of insights and discoveries every gardening day.
I come from a family of nature lovers and gardeners. My academic career included courses in biology and botany that deepened my appreciation for the wonders of how living systems work and interact with each other.
My career was mostly in the computer programming realm with a number of positions using some of my biology and botany background. Late in life I made the change to human health, getting a degree in nursing. Working in the healthcare field was a great opportunity to recognize the suffering that occurs with poor health. Many of the most prevalent chronic disease issues can be reduced by living closer to the garden by eating fresh healthy produce.
The garden is where life begins and where we get our sustenance. I find working in the garden helps connect me to nature. Every day spent in the garden provides new insights on life and its marvelous mysteries.
Read on for more detail about me, my interests and my approach to gardening.
Family of Garden Enthusiasts
My interest in nature must be inherited from my parents and grandparents. My grandfather on my father’s side was a California state game warden, with much of his work in the great outdoors of California. My maternal grandfather maintained a large yard and garden. At least from my childhood eyes it seemed huge and he grew a variety of flowers, shrubs and fruit trees.
I remember our family having a vegetable garden from the days before I was even in school. For some reason I recall harvesting chard and peas from the garden. My mother has a reputation in her neighborhood for the variety of flowers in her front garden. I recognize I have picked up her inclination to save the stray seedlings and shoots that come up, sharing them with whoever might be interested. The seeds sprouting from her Japanese Maple tree ended up in pots as gifts to others.
My father also spent time in the garden making additions and improvements. In their small backyard garden he had a number of fruit and nut trees including pear, almond, apricot and apple.
No surprise I enjoy spending time in the garden and outdoors in the wilder places of nature. It is a joy that has continued to grow.
Botanist
My college major was physics, but I managed to include courses in biology and botany to fulfill my interest in nature and living creatures. My interest in plants lead to graduate school studying botany. Learning details of how plants grow, their anatomy and the amazing variety of ways plants have adapted to thrive in different environments was fabulous. My research involved spending summers tramping around the Rocky Mountains collecting plants. One of the benefits of being a field botanist.
Learning the anatomy and physiology of plants enhances my observations of the plants in our garden. Watching okra flowers open in the morning is a reminder of the plant hormones regulating flowering. Seeing the dry seed pods of poppies that act like salt shakers to scatter their seeds when the wind blows brings to mind the many adaptations plants have to spread their seeds. You will see that flavor of observation in our blog posts about the garden.
Nurse
Most of my professional career was working with computers and software development. Some of that time I worked in biology and botany related fields. At Colorado State University I worked on a radiation research project and helped develop an information system for the Veterinary Teaching Hospital.
Later I worked with the USDA Soil Conservation Service developing computer systems to help work with farmers. It was an opportunity to use some of my background in botany.
Later in life I changed careers, going back to school getting a Bachelors in Nursing. This brought the focus back to the science of health and wellness. Healthcare is focused on treating diseases, with not enough emphasis on preventing disease through healthy diet and lifestyle. If we start in the garden, eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, we would go a long way towards improving the health of many folks in this country. We hope Zanganeh Garden helps encourage and inspire people to garden, or connect to those healthy freshly grown foods.
Gardener
Bob the gardener has many tasks, preparing the ground, planning which plants go where, planting seeds, taking cuttings, watering, weeding, trimming, harvesting. But the plants do most of the amazing work of growing. The gardener is there to watch and assist the plants in doing what they want to do. Sometimes doing a little control on the ones that get a bit too rowdy! The gardener provides the environment for them to thrive, or nudges them in one direction or another. A little trimming of those tomatoes can keep them focused on making fruit rather than becoming an unwieldy mass of vines.
I keep learning about the plants in the garden and apply my scientific approach of observation and experimentation to working in the garden. Always more to learn about how these amazing plants survive and thrive, providing us sustenance, beauty, and inspiration. I cannot help but be inspired by all I experience in the garden.
Life begins in the garden.
Musician
Although not directly connected to gardening, music is one of my interests. I’ll say the songs of the birds are my connection to gardening. Other’s have been inspired by the bird songs as evidenced by one of my recorder books having 40 songs from “The Bird Fancier’s Delight” published in London around 1730.
Music has been an interest since childhood. Trombone was my primary instrument up through college years. I learned to play recorders shortly after college. They are easier to pick up and play without the regular practice needed to keep that trombone lip in shape.
Recorder playing progressed to Native American flute and then to a classical Western transverse flute (Boehm flute). While the Native American flute and recorders are a “whistle” type flute, where you blow in the end of the flute, the transverse flute is side blown and requires a bit more technique to get a good sound. Then I added an Asian Bansuri flute to the collection. This is also a transverse flute made simply from a piece of bamboo with 7 holes, no keys.
From my interest in learning more about music theory, chord progressions and such I started learning classical guitar. Then added a steel string acoustic guitar. For me, the guitar is the most challenging of the instruments I have tried. Guitar requires a lot of finger dexterity, coordination, and accuracy compared to wind instruments. Playing multiple notes at a time also adds to the complexity.
I have also been playing with music production software, called a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). It is pretty amazing how today’s computer power enables a lot of sophisticated audio processing. We have a basic home studio with the tools for music recording and mixing at home. I do a little composing, arranging, and producing some of the music we make at home.
Samples of recordings are on our Music page. We’re not professionals, but enjoy creating music and sharing those creations with you.
Zanganeh Garden 