Tour kitchens and gardens of Centerville

Sunday, June 27th, 2010 at 11:02 am

1277636739 48 Tour kitchens and gardens of Centerville

A bevy of birdhouses, the beauty of buds and a porch pillar-supported pergola topped with trumpet vine are among the features of one Centerville garden that will be included in this weekend’s Historic Centerville Garden and Kitchen Tour.

The tour, which will be Saturday and Sunday, is a fundraiser for Historic Centerville’s efforts to maintain and restore the Mansion House Inn and Tavern at 214 E. Main St. in Centerville, along with the Salisbury Court House and the Railroad Shanty also on that property.

For $5 each, visitors will receive a map to several Centerville-area gardens and kitchens for touring. the tickets and maps are available at the Centerville Farmer’s Market.

One stop will be at Olive Hill Farm, where Jean Ann and David Mull will share their kitchen and gardens. the Mulls started with a bare yard and have been adding gardens to their property for years, also adding garden decor and folk art created by Jean Ann Mull.

In the front yard, there is a large flower bed that kept growing because when the Mulls would sit on a nearby swing, Jean Ann Mull wanted more to see. the bed includes her favorite flower, the rose campion. A start of the flower was given to her by a friend’s grandmother and she’s been spreading them around the yard ever since.

“It’s become my favorite,” Jean Ann Mull said. “I like it’s bright pink color. It blooms a long time.

“It’s tough, too. the rule here is if it’s not tough, it can’t live here.”

The front yard also includes several birdhouses, among them a red-barn style birdhouse decorated with insulators from the telephone company. Jean Ann Mull made it for David, who retired from Verizon, and he says it is his favorite.

In the backyard, there are varied levels of patios and decks adorned with potted plants. Adjacent their circular garden, which took the place of their swimming pool, is a pergola the couple made. Its supports are porch pillars and its roof is a length of fencing.

“We don’t throw anything away,” David Mull quipped.

All around them are examples of their hard work and creativity. A fire pit circles what was once a tree stump, a rock wall — for which they scavenged and set every block — braces the hillside below the house and a trellis of wire fence and wood is Jean Ann Mull’s new favorite features.

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Inside their 1920 home, the Mulls are showing off their new kitchen, dining room and dining nook. the idea for a new kitchen came after a family gathering when Jean Ann Mull and her daughters-in-law kept bumping into one another in the small kitchen.

The result is a large addition that squares off the house and not only adds a kitchen but a formal dining room separated by French doors that can be opened for family gatherings or closed to keep the dining room cozy with its gas fireplace.

The island in the kitchen is supported in part by three legs that Jean Ann Mull rescued from the trash and refurbished. she saved enough with the effort that she was able to splurge on a quartz countertop for the island.

Jean Ann Mull recently completed the kitchen decor by painting a blank wall near the rear door with a mural depicting the white picket fence and flowers of her garden.

“Hopefully, it will remind me of my gardens when the snow is flying,” she said.

David Mull said he told her she could add the mural if she included a barn-shaped birdhouse in it and she did.

Having been pulling weeds since March, the Mulls are sure they will be ready for tour and visitors by Saturday.

“It’s fun that someone’s enjoying your hard work as much as you do,” she said.

Tour kitchens and gardens of Centerville