Wishing Everyone A Happy, Healthy, Prosperous and Green 2011

Yes, I’m still alive, although you would not know it from the activity on my blogs. I owe apologies to many friends for my unresponsiveness. I sincerely apologize for that.

I became somewhat of a recluse in 2010 but this too shall pass. It’s been a difficult and stressful year but I have learned a lot and can’t believe how fast it went by. The older you get the faster the years go by.

Medical issues have consumed much of my time. I still don’t have new knees and hope to have the first knee replacement surgery done by February. The second surgery will be about 3 months later.  Yes, I’m apprehensive but know that it will help immeasurably to restore my active life.

It’s hard for me to realize that I was power walking an hour a day a little over a year ago. Now I’m prematurely a wobbly old man.  I really miss power walking, street photography and visits to the city for fun instead of medical appointments.

After knee surgeries, I will need to deal with prostate cancer.  It’s been detected early, appears to be localized (MRI) and I’m under the constant care of a good urologist.

Activism to promote modern methods of urban greenscaping and urban agriculture  continues to drive my life. After making many mistakes, I have rebooted the plans and goals for my urban agriculture activism.

The biggest surprise of my move to NYC was to discover how out of date the horticulture community is here in supposedly sophisticated and hip New York. The local hort community is all about in-ground dirt gardening, clay pots and drain holes. These were modern methods only in the age of the early Egyptians.

Sorry to say, there is no leadership whatsoever regarding modern methods of growing food in an urban built environment. We do not have even  one institution where a New Yorker can learn about modern urban container growing methods (sub-irrigation and simplified hydroponics for example). That includes the major botanic gardens in Brooklyn and the Bronx.

To fill this void, my goal is to establish the Center for Urban Greenscaping (CuGreen) as a 501(c)(3). I have two “dream locations” in mind.  I plan to solicit the support of people with power to make the dreams into reality.

CuGreen will become the educational institution that is now absent but vitally needed in NYC. It will focus on greenscaping science and technology education and the creation of new green jobs and small businesses. The positive impact potential in these difficult economic times is enormous.

My Inside Urban Green blog will become a part of a new CuGreen website. Blogs are good information sources but too asymmetrical. I’ve spent most of my time recently drafting a new document that better summarizes the scope and mission of “urban greenscaping”. It is tedious work.

I’m also flirting with the idea of writing a book but well aware that writing is introverted work. Book writing will probably wait until more urgent goals are accomplished.

The priority right now is for my more extroverted sales and marketing side to step out front and center. I now have a much better understanding of who to pitch to and will use the many years of experience from my business career. It’s obviously “just do it” time!

I will also get back to blogging on a regular basis. More to come. Stay tuned.

Happy New Year!
Bob
aka Greenscaper