August 1928

The Little Iron Man

HE stands at the curb in expectant attitude-- a relic of the seventies or eighties, so utterly ignored that no one has even thought to take him away.

EDWIN T. MEREDITH

AS THESE pages were going to press there passed out of this life the man whose vision created Better Homes and Gardetis. Into a fair new home, not made with hands, graced by the gardens which are mankind's deathless dream, he has gone.

Make Your Garden Dreams Come True

IF you are one of those ordinary folks, as I am, who must keep a wary eye on the dollars and dimes, if not indeed the pennies also, you probably long for more perennials than you think you can afford. You leaf thru the pages of the catalogs or gaze at the flower show; you sigh, and like Maud Muller.

A Home in Harmony

A HOUSE should be first of all a home, and only secondarily a work of art, for the more nearly it fulfills the first function, the greater chance it has to fulfill the second. A home is really a coordination of three arts-- architecture, landscape architecture, and interior decoration.

Getting Ready for Next Year's Peony Parade

WHEN you enjoy the glorious blooming peonies in May and June, you are seeing beauty that has outlived kingdoms and empires, beauty that is older than Christianity itself, for we have records of these flowers for over nineteen hundred years. Pliny, the great Roman naturalist, who lived from 23 to 79 A. D., tells us of them in his writings, and of the medicinal quality of their roots. The species that he mentions are now known to us as the old-fashioned red peonies of our great-grandmother's gardens.

The Art of Lawn Making

HOW do you manage to have such a beautiful lawn?'' asked an American tourist of an old English gardener. "That, is easy," replied the gardener. "You simply prepare the seed bed carefully; sow clean seeds; roll; weed; water; fertilize and mow-- after a hundred years of such practice you have a real lawn."

We Make Over An Ugly Room

AFTER the question, "What color chair shall I buy?" comes always the plaintive query, "Where shall I put it when I get it?" For the problem of room arrangement goes hand in hand with that of wise choice of color.

How to Get the Most Out of Your Furnace

TO a primitive man, it would seem that the heating of a modern home is done by magic, so far a cry it is from his cave fire to the modern heating plant. But how wonderful the miracle of that first fire must have seemed to him as he sat beside it warming his shins and coughing in the good old smoke

Walt Mason in His Garden

A GENTLE man, who loves humanity, flowers, trees and "the deep-voiced neighboring ocean," such is Walt Mason, who has written a prose rhyme every week-day for the past twenty years.

My Home Is My Fo'castle

A VERY small house may combine architectural distinction with economy. That is proven by the experience of a newly-married couple, an architect and "Chips," an old ship's carpenter. Their story is a genuine romance of homemaking.

Our Old Barn Becomes A Garden Studio

THAT," said our hostess, indicating the story-book shingled studio at the head of the garden, with lilac and hawthorn and old-fashioned yellow roses growing around it, "is our old barn."

Do You Point With Pride to Your Town?

GARDEN clubs thruout the country are doing a very wonderful and useful work in their communities in the way of stimulating interest in the making of lovely gardens; but it seems to me that there are other worthwhile things that garden clubs can do to make their cities more beautiful and more livable places, things that would raise them out of the "ordinarv" class of cities.

What About Electric Refrigeration?

AN electric refrigerator cannot be called an extravagance. Every hour of every day it is busily engaged in promoting wholesome meals and wise marketing, together with the thrifty conservation of odds and ends of leftovers which form a substantial factor in reducing food costs.

New Helps in Solving Parents' Problems

A LITTLE less than four years ago, I can remember writing a complaint that while there was plenty of information available on the physical care of children, a mother knew not where to turn to get help in training the mind and character of her child.

For Better Housekeeping

HAVE you ever gone into a house in which you felt that all interest in housekeeping for its own sake had long since died? I have, many times, and always in such cases I wish I might entice the woman of the house to buy just one interesting new piece of kitchen equipment.

Dress Up the Sleeping Porch

A ROOM with so much light and air as the sleeping porch boasts is bound to be popular even in the daytime. Sewing machine and toy box often find their way out here; a wicker rocker and a few clever rugs are m order. This is another one of the places where odds and ends of furniture may be painted and slip-covered into real harmony.

Beds Must Be Comfortable

BEDSTEADS, like children, need becoming clothes. Few mothers dress their children alike but it is not uncommon to find the various types of beds in a household wearing the same style of spreads.

"Tell Me a Good Novel"

TELL me a good novel," a woman friend said to me the other day, "one that's really a good story. I get so tired of hearing people recommend books because they're 'striking experiments,' or 'beautifully written,' or 'done with a powerful technique.' I want a good story, something to forget myself in.

Come to the Garden Clinic

THERE are a number of long, black beetles on the flowers of my dahlias and other plants. How can I get rid of them?

The Children's Pleasure Chest

THERE were so many nice letters about dogs, ponies, squirrels, birds, cats and the like this month, that I have decided just about every boy and girl who reads this page has a pet of some sort. Nancy Harrison wrote such a good story about her dog that she gets a two-dollar prize.

Toolcraft for the Summer Camp

WHEN you have packed everything that you are going to take along with you to your summer cottage or camp-cabin in starting on your vacation this summer, better take a second look to make sure that you have included the tools that you will need to make the little conveniences that will be such a comfort.

The Wild Flowers of Music

THE folk songs of any nation may rightly be called the "wild flowers" in the music of that nation. As wild flowers grow and thrive without the care of a gardener, so these songs grew and became known and loved even, perhaps, before people could read or write.

Join the Delphinium Society

Walt Mason in His Garden

August Garden Work

AUGUST is the month of dog days and of shimmering heat; it is the month of dust, the month of preserve making and canning. It is the month of picnics and watermelons, of annuals run to seed, of weeds shoulder high. It is the month when slip-shod home gardeners give up in despair.

Across the Editor's Desk

THE process of "scheming" to get what you want in your house plan is one of the most fascinating tilings about the planning of a home. For that reason I get a lot of joy out of working with small house plans.