The New School

05/29/2026

No Mow May seems to have gone well. We've worked with the Planeteers of Southern Maine last year on creating pollinator pathways in our area of downtown Kennebunk, helping bees and other early-season pollinators. Our landscaping has attracted several brightly-colored visitors to our yard, including some wearing hi-vis reflective vests.

05/15/2026

05/15/2026

We're getting ready for tomorrow's plant sale and gardening event, but we really want to give a special thanks to our neighbors at A Joyful Noise Preschool and Childcare Center for allowing our attendees to park there.

With the road construction on York Street, we were concerned about street parking, but it looks as if street parking will be available—just keep an eye out for temporary no-parking signs on the Wells-bound side. There is no parking in The New School's lot, because that's where we'll be set up. A Joyful Noise is the reddish building just on the Kennebunk side of TNS. The entrance to that lot is off York and the lot exits onto Day Street.

05/15/2026

Oh, it 's not all promos for the plant sale around here—our students have been busy! Our third time fostering salmon wound up with 194 of 200 lil' dudes surviving to last week's release day.

Started in '23 as a senior project by alum Alex Morin, the tradition continues! Our batch of 200 eggs arrived on February 27th and were cared for by our current class. We travelled up to Little River in Lisbon Falls, hiked a bit, and let our small fry loose. It wasn't until we looked at the photos that we realized we wound up releasing the young fry in exactly the same spot as two years prior.

05/13/2026

We just checked the weather for this Saturday and goodness, me—it's going to be so nice. Mostly sunny after Thursday's and Friday's rains? Just over 70° at midday? It's going to be perfect day to come by, look at some plants, have some ice cream, and talk gardening!

What aspect of the event are you looking forward to? At my house, we're converting some of the yard around our patio to a flower (and veggie) garden; there's information all about that at our event! We also have questions about getting some erosion control and what to plant on our sloped terrace to ask the University of Maine's Master Gardeners. You?

05/11/2026

On our three week intensives (starting next week!), our travel cohort is heading down to Washington, D.C., and the surrounding area, then down to Williamsburg, VA. Along the way, we'll be at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the National Archives, the Smithsonian Museums, the International Spy Museum, Mount Vernon, Colonial Williamsburg, Busch Gardens, and more.

05/11/2026

We recently added more vendors and guests, including: Eden Acres Family Farm with all things apple, Mountain View Bees with honey and beekeeping demos, U of Maine's Master Gardeners with answers to your gardening questions, In Harmony Homeopathy with homeopathics, Neverdun Farm with herbal teas and the yard to garden conversion, ice cream from our local Ben & Jerry's, and more!

We'll see you this Saturday from 10 to 2 at The New School in Kennebunk!

05/08/2026

Last Friday the school took a field trip to Living Shores Aquarium, in Glen, NH. Living Shores features aquatic and terrestrial wildlife throughout their educational complex. There are over 50,000 gallons of aquarium exhibits and is home to dozens of species of marine life, including five interactive touch pools of rays, sharks, and invertebrates. They also exhibit dozens of amphibians and reptiles, ranging from local backyards to all the way across the globe! The aquarium serves the greater New England area as an interactive and educational resource in wildlife conservation, habitat preservation, and sustainability through both in-house and outreach programming.