This weekend, Sept 12-13, marks the first annual Hudson River/Champlain Valley Heritage Weekend held on every stretch of the valley from Staten Island all the way up to Fort Montgomery in Rouses Point, NY. That's 345 miles of history, wonder, and awe.

More than 100 museums, historic sites, battlefields, and parks, many open this weekend only, will welcome visitors free or at reduced rates with special events, exhibitions, tours, hikes, performances, reenactments, and even paddles on the river. 

One of the many Heritage Weekend participating sites is Historic Hudson Valley's own Montgomery Place located in Annandale-on-Hudson in Dutchess County. Montgomery Place is a picture-perfect example of a Hudson Valley estate. Its 434 acres hold gardens, an arboretum, woodlands, and orchards. The grounds and the house will be open for free admission from 10-5 on Saturday and Sunday. Reservations are not required.

For a full list of sites participating in Heritage Weekend, click here.

The falling leaves, cold temperatures, and dormant plants that mark autumn invoke a degree of sadness in gardeners, hard-core and casual alike. What to do as the days grow short and the flower beds grow tired? How about getting some pointers to apply once next year's season begins anew?

On Saturday, Dec. 6, Sarah Price, landscape director at Montgomery Place, will be teaching a continuing education class at Bard College, right next door to MP, called "Getting Started with Perennials." Part of a series hosted by the New York Botanical Garden, the class is $42 for their members and $47 for the general public.

Here's Sarah's course description:

"Perennials return year after year to provide color and texture in our gardens. Be inspired by beautiful plant combinations and discover the most dependable perennials for lower maintenance and long-term beauty. Learn the basics of perennial gardens, including soil preparation and planting techniques, plant selection, design, and maintenance."

Sarah definitely knows what she's talking about and loves to share her knowledge. Her Montgomery Place peonies are shown here.

Check out this link for more info and to sign up for the class.

For those of you who subscribe to Sirius Satellite Radio (and if you don't you should, really), check out the Martha Stewart Living channel 112 today at 1 p.m.

Sarah Price, landscape director extraordinaire at Montgomery Place, will be a guest on "Homegrown Gardening," a live call-in show hosted by Martha gardening gurus Tony Bielaczyc and Andrew Beckman.

As those of you who have visited MP lately know, Sarah is doing a stellar job restoring its elaborate gardens using planting plans original to the estate.

Not a Sirius subscriber? (Really, you should be.) Well, you can go to Sirius.com and listen on a trial basis.

Good luck, Sarah!

Been looking for an excuse to visit Montgomery Place? Need something "special" to motivate you to make the trip to Annandale? Well, now you've got one.  Montgomery Place is one of the sites featured in the ninth annual Hudson River Valley Ramble planned for weekends in September. MP gets to show off its garden stuff on Saturday, Sept. 13, at 11 a.m.

Walk with Landscape Director Sarah Price through the glorious gardens that grace this former country seat of the Livingston Family. Sarah and her team have been meticulously restoring the estate using planting plans original to the property. You can see the fruits of their labor - circa early 20th century gardens that range from lush perennial, annual and herb beds to the naturalistic "Rough Garden" and the "Ellipse" with a reflecting water lily pool (shown above).

Ramble organizers say that by visiting MP you will gain a view into the colors, fragrances, and designs popular during America's estate garden era. I heartily agree!

The walk is pretty easy, and the tour will cover roughly a half mile. If you can't make it on Sept. 13, you are welcome to visit MP any other Saturday or Sunday through October. Options include a self-guided audio tour of the estate.

The Ramble is sponsored annually by the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, Hudson River Valley Greenway, and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's Estuary Program.

MP's Ramble tour is one of 202 events taking place from Saratoga County all the way to NYC. (For a complete listing of events, click here.

More than 100,000 people participated in the 2007 Ramble -- though presumably not all at the same time and place. Cause that would have been a lot of people rambling on, and you would have noticed that.

Nothing's happening at Montogomery Place since it's closed, right? Well, first off, it's not closed, it's open. The site's lush grounds, 434 acres of waterfront serenity in Annandale-on-Hudson, are blooming and welcoming visitors every Saturday and Sunday from 10-5 through October.

As HHV buffs know, the mansion at Montgomery Place is off-limits while it continues to undergo renovations in preparation for a significant reinterpretation, but that doesn't mean you can't take a stroll through the (blooming) peonies like those here.

And getting ready for the relaunch, HHV has brought aboard a new Montgomery Place site director, Ray Armater, who previously was site director at Philisburg Manor and Locust Grove. Welcome, Ray!

Ray joins Landscape Director Sarah Price, who has devoted the past several years to an ambitious project of meticulously restoring the Montgomery Place gardens. Her staff and volunteers have planted, divided, weeded, and mulched to bring the borders back to their glory from their 1920s and 1930s heyday. (More garden bloggin' to come...)

And what about the reinterpretation? Launching in 2010, "American Arcadia: People, Landscape, and Nature at Montgomery Place" will refocus the site to explore man's relationship to nature, landscape, and the environment. The project will use the experiences of people who lived and worked on this model country estate during its 200-year history to illustrate important turning points in American attitudes towards nature and landscape.