Tour Opens Extraordinary Kitchens and Gardens for View

Many women enjoy looking at beautiful gardens and expertly designed kitchens in magazines but Saturday locals will have the chance to step inside and examine an array of Farmington’s most beautiful, all while supporting the Farmington Libraries.

The 13th Annual Farmington Kitchens and Gardens Tour hosted by the Friends of the Farmington Library will be held tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at six private homes and seven public gardens and museums. The oldest homes date back to the 1659 and most are in the Village, within walking distance from the Barney and Noah Wallace School parking lots, where visitors are welcome to park.

Kitchens on the tour feature modern kitchen design – wolf ovens, sub-zero refrigerators, stainless and Viking appliances, granite countertops. Some retain wide-board floors and antique hearths.

The gardens, too, offer an array of styles and plant varieties. Some include ponds, sprawling lawns and mature trees, others are tucked in the woods and use ornamental grasses or exotic plants.

Steve Silk, president of the Horticultural Society, will open his garden at 74 Prattling Pond Road. Silk, who is also a writer and garden photographer, lectures on using tropical plants in containers. One lecture is called “Wild and Crazy Gardens” and another “Thriller, Filler and Stiller.”

“A lot of women like to garden and they get ideas from other peoples’ gardens as to arrangement, placement of certain kinds of hostas and how to use different plants,” said Peggy Bliss, who coordinated the tour.  Bliss made tags for the plants at a few homes so visitors would know what they’re seeing.

The tour is an enjoyable project, but also one that reaps and enormous benefit for the community. On a sunny day two years ago, the Friends of the Farmington Library raised $15,000 through the tour. A rainy day is less profitable, Bliss said.

The Friends have given $80,000 from the tour and the Friends’ other fundraisers to support the Barney Library renovations over the past four years. With the project now complete, the money will go to supporting programs at both libraries. That includes museum passes, purchase of CDs and DVDs, Wacky Wednesdays and summer programs like cooking classes for children, bringing lectures to the libraries and software for the Nook, Bliss said.

“It benefits the community. If they didn’t have the money, I don’t think the library would be as popular,” Bliss said. “It’s very worthwhile. The Friends of the Library board is maybe 20 women and we’re always looking for new people.”

In addition to looking for new members, Bliss said the Friends start looking for new homes to include in next year’s tour as soon as this year’s is through.

Tickets for the tour are $20 in advance, available at either the Main Library or the Barney Branch, and $25 Saturday at the houses.

Properties included in the tour are 74 Prattling Pond Road, 139 Mountain Spring Road, 16 Main St., 21 Main St., 45 Mountain Road and 10 Blenheim Terrace. In addition, The Hillstead’s Sunken Garden, The Stanley Whitman Museum’s Herb Garden, The Farmington Historical Society’s Cottage and Gridley Garden, Noah Wallace School’s Childrens’ Garden, Unionville Museum’s exhibit and the Connecticut Master Gardener’s Perennial Garden at the Farmington Library are open.

For more information call 860-673-6791.