By Joy Kraft
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The Wyoming garden tour has undergone a renovation to handle the "challenges" Mother Nature provided in years past. The new tour, dubbed Wyoming May Fete's Kitchen & Patio Tour, will be 1-5 p.m. June 1.

104 Elm Ave.

Previous tours, "though quite successful, tended to depend a great deal on the weather for its success. This tour will be very pleasant, rain or shine," says Carole Leish, co-chairperson with Margaret Rodrigue. The tour will include the homes' interiors and gardens.

Tour stops:

• 104 Elm Ave., once the mansion of Otto Armleder, built about 1906 and renovated by its present owners. It features a touch-screen security system and kitchen with lava and granite countertop, two Dacor ovens and bamboo flooring.

203 Wilmuth Ave.

• 203 Wilmuth Ave. has been returned to its Arts and Crafts bungalow roots with a refurbished kitchen, dining room and backyard deck.

• 350 Oliver Road is an English Tudor with stained glass windows, an updated butler's pantry and a walkway to a backyard oasis and patio.

• 909 Reily Road was the fieldstone colonial summer home for big band director Burt Farber. The kitchen floor is handmade brick and adjoins an added family room overlooking a fieldstone patio and shade garden.

909 Reily Road

• 509 Hickory Lane was built in 1941, then renovated with a kitchen counter of salvaged oak from an old "journeyman" house near Paramount's Kings Island and countertops of white Avanza made from Halian stone.

• 542 Woodbrook Lane showcases the work of its owners, who run Kemper Design Center. The kitchen has a soapstone sink, a limestone tile countertop and fieldstone pillars to mimic the exterior stone. The full-length deck, built to accommodate a 150-year-old oak tree, has a stone fire pit.

• 556 Abilene Trail was gutted in 1999 to bring the 1962 home into the 21st century. Nine feet was added to the rear of the home, plus a paver-floor patio and screened porch.

• 134 Congress Run Road has a yard bordered by woods on three sides and a piano-shaped swimming pool with tiered decking and a built-in spa.

Home tour tickets are $8 by calling 948-1299 or 948-8632. Tickets, $10, will be available during tour hours at each of the houses.