This is Episode 1 of our Vlog, Food for Thought. This episode is titled, “Food Security During Times of Crisis.” This video discusses the use of an old urban gardening technique, self-watering containers made from 5-gallon buckets, as a means of ensuring food security for individuals, families, and communities regardless of the economy and condition of the commercialized food supply. …
Online Magazine: Learn & Grow
The Value of Patience

In our ever-increasingly rapid-paced world, we have become accustomed to real-time results to many of our efforts and inquiries, which amounts to instant gratification. Surrounded by these experiences, it is easy for developing young children who are still processing the world according to intuition rather than logic to misperceive this constant stream of instant gratification as the only kind of …
The Connections Between Our Two Areas of Expertise
For those of you who only know us for the Learn & Grow Educational SeriesSMÂ and its efforts to teach sustainable living concepts and methods, you might be interested to know that KPS4Parents, our non-profit organization, which owns the Learn & Grow Educational Series, has a whole different side to it. KPS4Parents also works with families of children with disabilities and …
From Our Garden: Okra
Okra, known as Lady Fingers in some parts of the world, forms an elongated fruit from each flower. The flowers only last for a day or two and the fruits are ready to pick just a few days after that. Okra is most commonly prepared in stir fries and sautées. This okra plant is growing in a self-watering container made …
New Self-Watering Container Garden Built in India
About a year ago, I encountered my friend, Avanish, on Facebook through mutual online friends in the organic gardening realm of the web. We both had a common interest in sustainable living and our online conversations started around Learn & Grow. At about that same time, the virtual assistant I’d had could no longer continue in the position and I …
2016 Has Been Amazing – Let’s Make 2017 an Even Better Year to Learn & Grow
Operation Dwarf Banana
UPDATE: Since this article was originally posted, our dwarf banana tree has gotten approximately 3 feet/1 metre tall. Scroll to the bottom to see a more current image of it. Recently, I wrote about the recent developments in Venezuela and its current food shortage crisis. In response to the growing demand for information about growing food using our self-watering container …
Growing Your Own Food is Independence
This last week has been a whirlwind of activity for KPS4Parents and its Learn & Grow Educational Series. While we were working with students and developing instructional content for children, the political and economic situation in Venezuela took an absolute turn for the worst. Venezuela is the first internet-connected population of hungry and starving people. Professionals living in high rise …
Emmalyn Makes a Salad
Watch 4-year-old Emmalyn pick the ingredients for mint tea and salads and have a garden tea party in the Learn & Grow Educational SeriesSM test garden.
From Bucket to Table: The Life Story of a Squash
At first, there’s the female flower with a little green bulb behind it. Pollen from the male flowers, which are on straight stems, fertilize the female flower, causing the little green bulb to develop into a squash fruit. Once the flower has been fertilized, it dries up and the little green bulb grows into a new, developing squash fruit. Over …