About Me
Hi, I’m Ed DeRouin, a home gardener in Central Florida. I’ve tried lots of things over my 30+ adult years here in Florida and I’m still trying new things. I’d like to pass on some of the things I’ve learned so you don’t have to make the same mistakes I did. I hope it’s useful.
Science has been my life. I started my career with 6 years in the Navy as a nuclear reactor operator. When I got out I got my Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and went right to work in a laboratory testing new semiconductor materials at cryogenic temperatures. Then I moved on to development and test of night vision systems, lasers, and some of the first solid state cameras. After getting a Masters degree in Engineering Management and while working on a second Masters degree in Computer Science, I became enthralled with artificial intelligence. That is where I spent the remainder of my professional career, going on to get a PhD in Computer Science and specializing in machine intelligence, computer vision, and pattern recognition. I’m currently enrolled in UCF seeking a PhD in Physics. Why does this matter in a gardening blog? Gardening is science! Sure there’s a lot of art in gardening as well, but if you ignore the science you can make a lot of mistakes you don’t have to. My aim with gardentidbits is to clear away some of the misconceptions and myths and find out what really works.
I’m also an amateur paleontologist and have a website dedicated to help fossil collectors identify what they’ve found. Visit FossilWeb.com if you’d like to see the fossils.