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!

Great weather and compelling performances were on tap at Philipsburg Manor's Green Corn Festival, which took place over the holiday weekend, Saturday-Monday.

Hands-on activities and Native American storytelling, crafts, singing, and dancing made for a splendid day out and a break from the BBQ circuit.

The Journal News came by, too. Check out the coverage here.

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.

Summer is beginning to wind down, at least for kids who are facing the mixed emotions of the back-to-school bell, so we thought it appropriate to piggyback on our Aug. 14 entry and offer some final thoughts on the pilot Riverweek program at Van Cortlandt Manor, which ran from Aug. 4-8 and was organized by Danielle Fontaine, HHV summer camp guru (shown above).

Danielle said she found it particularly rewarding to work with the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater organization, which centers around a boat built by folksinger Pete Seeger in the 1960s to bring attention to pollution and environmental degradation plaguing the Hudson.

Riverweek wasn't the first time these two organizations partnered on projects. Danielle is a long time volunteer for Clearwater and had worked with Clearwater educator Dan Einbender on past projects such as the Summerweek program at Sunnyside.

After several brainstorming sessions between HHV Program Director Ross W. Higgins, Van Cortlandt Manor Site Director Althea Corey, and Clearwater Director Jeff Rumpf, the team of Dan and Danielle created the program that would become Riverweek's. With the addition of Camp Director Christin Creary and the talents of HHV's interpretive staff, Riverweek came to life.

A true blend of both organization's missions and educational programs, Riverweek featured a split day: mornings being spent in the early 19^th century with the Van Cortlandt family and other residents of the manor, with students studying how the Hudson and Croton Rivers shaped our history.

The afternoons were spent learning about the environment, ecology, and our effect on the future of our rivers. Campers built their own boats, prepared a lunch featuring Van Cortlandt family recipes for river fish, tied nets, studied the Hudson River School of painting, and made hand crafts of sailors past such as scrimshaw, knot work, and sailor's valentines. Students also spent  time studying aquatic life, examining the food web through games, and testing the waters of the rivers.

One entire Riverweek day was spent at Croton Point Park, seining in the Hudson River, collecting fish, and taking water samples. Students got to learn how they, as stewards of the river, can protect the waterways for future generations. Each day at lunch, there was a moment of silence, providing a chance to just listen to the surrounding environment and feel a part of nature, rather than just watching it on a screen.

Campers wrote their own song parodies and designed story boards with their own photographs, reflecting on what they learned during the week. They presented the end results in a concert for parents on the final day.

Danielle says by all measures the program was a huge success.

"After reviewing comments from campers and the written responses from parents, we are very hopeful that Riverweek will become a permanent part of Historic Hudson Valley's summer program offerings," she said.

From HVBLogger's perspective, any program that gets kids outside and thinking about the implications of man's footprint on the environment is a good thing, indeed. Bravo to Danielle and the entire crew for making it happen.