Along the Garden Path
APRIL is the joyous month of growth and expectation. We an-ticipate leaf and blossom. We are conscious of the life in every thing, of the desire to burst its bonds and escape.
Read ArticleThe Diary of a Plain Dirt Gardener
APRIL 2-- This afternoon I uncovered the peonies and tulips in front of the long shrub border. (There has been a great temptation to do it sooner.) Some of both were peeping above the ground. Then I worked away, resetting more of the perennials that had been disturbed by the winter's heaving. I also reset some of the rambler roses on the west border fence that had been planted last fall and were partially out of the ground, despite all my heaped dirt and mulching.
Read ArticleYour Dream Home Brought Down to Earth
WHEN we should live together in a cozy little spot Hid in a nest of roses, with a fairy garden spot.
Read ArticleAcquaint Yourself With These Annuals
ANNUALS have their place in the garden. Who can l say that they are of less importance than the perennials? They bloom from day to day until the killing frosts of fall. Their variety is almost limitless, yet but few annuals are commonly cultivated.
Read ArticleThe Lazy Man's Garden
NEARLY everyone, at some period of his life, has dreamed of sometime having a garden. Few who indulge in the dream actually wish to assume the care which the average garden demands, however.
Read ArticleWhat a Man Wants in His Home
MEN have had almost everything to say about the designing and the building of the American house, and it has been almost entirely wrong according to the women. Women have had almost every-thing to say about the decoration and the furnishing of this house, and it has been almost entirely wrong according to the men. May we therefore assume that between the two of them the great American home has been almost entirely wrong?
Read ArticleMrs. Hoover--Homemaker and World Citizen
"RICH man, poor man, beggar man, thief; doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief!" gayly chanted a blue-eyed girl in Iowa some years ago. But the buttons on her frock steadfastly refused to reveal the secret, for how could a childish rhyme disclose a future First Lady?
Read ArticleQuaint Beauty in Old-Time Gardens
AN OLD-FASHIONED garden! The words call to mind some of the famous old gardens laid out in colonial days: the Shirley and Westover and other Virginia gardens on the James or the Shenandoah, with quaint parterres and crepemyrtle, and boxwood hedges behind which the Sleeping Beauty might have lain undisturbed a hundred years; the gardens around Charleston and farther south, sheltered by live oaks hung with Spanish-moss, perfumed with jasmine and garlanded with Cherokee roses; or perhaps the prim New England gardens, with stately hollyhocks against a clean white picket fence; or a Pennsylvania Dutch garden, with tulips in carefully designed beds and wistaria hanging over a stone well-house
Read ArticleGeorge Matthew Adams in His Garden
GEORGE MATTHEW ADAMS, besides being an able writer, is one of the most successful men in the newspaper-syndicate business. He employs scores of people and can be seen in his luxurious offices at 250 Park avenue, New York City-- a human, "regular" fellow-- no long hair or non-masculine idiosyncrasies, but a virile, wiry, hardworking business man in a difficult city. in a most competitive era.
Read ArticleStudy Your Garden Soil
IF a building of any size is to be erected in a comparatively short time, there must be on hand the materials out of which it is built. They need not all be on the ground when the foundation is laid, but they must be there as they are needed or the work slows down. So it is with plants.
Read Article"Books in Running Brooks"
IF THE eight-hour day is to become the six-hour day, what are future citizens going to do with their time? Here is how one American school is trying to answer the question. Why may not thousands in the days ahead learn the fun of working with the rest of the Kingdom of Life?
Read ArticleADVENTURES IN SUMMER OUTINGS
THERE is no telling, of course, just when the first thrill of spring restlessness is going to hit one. The first hint of warmth in the sunshine, the first robin flashing across the soft blue of the sky, the first fragrant tang of bonfire smoke drifting thru the clear, thin air of twilight as we trudge homeward some evening, and suddenly we are dreaming of distant places, of sunshine on grass, the cool shadows of trees, the lapping of waves on a sandy beach.
Read ArticleGround Covers Add Grace to Every Garden
MASSES of low-growing plants are being used more and more in gardens these days. As coverings for banks and terraces, as edgings for pools and perennial borders, and as a substitute for grass under trees and in dense shade, these creeping plants, or ground covers, have a definite place in every garden.
Read ArticleTeaching Children Conservation
WHO will teach the children what conservation means? They are the ones who really count, and if they are not reached, all is wasted effort. Surely it is too much to ask school teachers to shoulder a new burden. With health drills and character building and good citizenship ideals, not to mention the still useful three R's, they have more than enough to do.
Read ArticleGood News About Radio
TODAY'S receiving equipment is so satisfactory that whatever is purchased now will be sure to be serviceable for a long period. This is the good news in the radio world today. So why miss the highly entertaining and instructive programs that are being broadcast?
Read ArticleWhat the Bureau Of Standards Is Doing for the Home Builder
WE WANTED a house. Now when that particular want gets hold of you, it digs in, entrenches itself, and grows and grows. It got so that nothing seemed to us quite so important as having our own roof over our heads, our own cozy fireplace, our own personal and private windows to look out on the passing world.
Read ArticlePlant Hedges for Beauty
IF YOU wish to mark the boundary line of a lawn or garden in a delightful fashion, why not plant a hedge? Such a wall of living green affords a charming background for flowers and plants, takes up but little space, and suggests an air of refinement and inoffensive seclusion.
Read ArticleSpring Magic in Paint
RECENT innovations in the field of interior decoration are too extensive to be covered in a single article. For this reason, I shall confine myself to a single phase of it, that of home painting and finishing.
Read ArticleBlending the Old With the New
THIS is a story of the remodeling of a house in which success rewarded the efforts far beyond the anticipation of the owners, and in which the house taught them a new and more interesting way to live. To begin at the beginning, a family that had always lived in Chicago, but had owned a tract some 20 miles from town, on which they had had picnics and enjoyed the pleasures of the country in summer, conceived the idea of building there and making the country their year-round home.
Read ArticleAnd Now, What Makes Children Nervous?
ASA CHILD, Richard was the pride of his parents' hearts. Precocious and with no discernible inhibitions, he talked readily and impressively to everyone from the time he was 1 year old. At 3 he spoke pieces at the Sunday-school entertainments. At 5 no community social event was a success without him. At 8 he made public speeches and covered himself and his parents with glory.
Read ArticleThese Are Mothers' Methods
FIFTEEN or twenty years from now my daughters-in-law are going to rise up and call me blessed, because I am training my two sons as self-sufficient human beings instead of members of the pampered sex.
Read ArticleThrifty Meal Planning
WITH particular interest I read Mrs. Twichell's "Banking Money in the Kitchen" in Better Homes and Gardens last year, and I found in it many useful and helpful suggestions because I have eight to feed on less than $50 a month.
Read ArticleWaterless Cookers
IF POT watching does not fascinate you, waterless cooking will. Foodstuffs prepared in this manner require a minimum of attention and oven space, and they retain maximum amounts of their food value and natural flavor.
Read ArticleIntroducing Gingham Dog and Calico Cat
SOME children born with that silver spoon of tradition in their mouths have day nurseries and night nurseries; some fall heir to great treasures in the attic under the parental roof. Others have a sunny room or wee alcove for their very own, while still others possess but a toy-box.
Read ArticleIce Refrigeration the Year Round
HOUSEHOLD refrigeration the year round is now a recognized necessity because we have awakened to its tremendous contribution to health and general well-being. However, to be really efficient and economical, the refrigerator must be chosen with considerable care and intelligence, particularly as regards construction.
Read ArticleMy Bristling Servants
THE homemaker of yesterday was limited to such cleaning tools as turkey and chicken wings and handmade brooms. The homemaker of today has at her command a large variety of time-saving, step-saving, and energy-saving brushes. Industry and the modern home- maker are largely responsible for this revolution in household-cleaning processes and this array of "bristling servants."
Read ArticleModern Laundries Banish "Wash Day Blues"
"VISITORS welcomed," I read in the advertisement of a local laundry. Since there are undoubtedly laundries in your locality extending this same invitation, I want to give you some inkling of the interest there is in store for you if you act on the suggestion, as I did, and make the trip.
Read ArticleGrowing Celery in Semiarid Regions
CELERY, as all gardeners are aware, requires a good deal of water and is really successful only where rainfall is regular and adequate. Frequent watering, where rainfall is insufficient, often achieves fair results, but most lovers of celery become weary of the work involved and erase this choice vegetable from their garden list.
Read ArticleAids to Better Housekeeping
AT LEAST once a year most of us are conscious of shabbiness in our kitchens, and we feel that something new is needed L if we are to continue to take pride in doing work there. It is the natural reaction of spring, is it not? Newness everywhere makes us look at our kitchens in a new light. And if they don't measure up, what then? Obviously, we cannot discard them like last year's hats, but we can have some new things to put in them, things that will renew our joy in kitchen work.
Read ArticleWith a Dash of Chili
THE intriguing secret of Mexican cookery is the seasoning. Wherever found, Latins may be known by their highly flavored sauces, whether these are the marvelous concoctions of crab a la Creole or spaghetti Italienne. Mexican dishes are distinctive for that inevitable dash of chili.
Read ArticleCount Your Plants
IS YOUR home as completely landscaped as the average well-planted home in the United States?
Read ArticleGardening in Florida
THE native-born Floridan knows just what to plant in his flower garden for winter and spring blooms, and when the heat of summer comes, he also knows what will withstand the sun's hot rays, but an adopted Floridan, who comes here for the first winter, is charmed by his surroundings.
Read ArticleHarden Your Plants, Then Transplant
PLANTS, like animals, are sensitive to sudden changes in environment. Experienced commercial growers know this, and just before transplanting to the field seedlings started under glass in the late winter, they put them thru a process of hardening. This is done by gradually subjecting the tender plants to the temperature and moisture conditions they will meet in the field.
Read ArticleAre Books a Part of Your Home?
IN "THAT Aprille" when, as a preliminary to May house-cleaning, we take stock of our home surroundings and lay plans for the necessary repairs, why not check up on our mental and spiritual equipment also? The influence of books and other reading-matter may be a bit more difficult to compute than the influence of the foods we serve our families, but I can assure you that it is quite as worthy of consideration.
Read ArticleJack Frost's Favorite Vegetables
IF WE have planned and planted our garden according to suggestions given in previous articles, particularly according to the schedule given in the December issue, we now nave good stands of the hardy crops sown in March and April-- peas, beets, onions, parsnips, salsify, and the rest.
Read ArticlePerennials in the South
THE long, hot, and dry summers in the South are severe for perennials, and for several years all my efforts to grow them were a complete failure. I sowed the seed as the direc-tions advised me to do-- in the fall. Very few of them germinated, and those that did, did not live.
Read ArticleNature Protects Her Own
"CAMOUFLAGE" has become a popular word with us since the World war. Mother Nature, however, has practiced the art with her feathered children since the dawn of creation.
Read ArticleCommon Sense in the Hardy Garden
THERE are two kinds of hardy gardens the well-remembered, colorful and flowery garden, and the starved graveyard of garden hopes. The picture of the luxuriant, gorgeous, hardy garden glimpsed thru the fence of some private estate will live in your mind for years. Nothing can equal it in color or beauty, and it is a sight that will make any home owner wish to have its equal in his own back yard.
Read ArticleWitloof Chicory fo Winter Salads
IN OUR choice of winter salad greens, we used to go from head lettuce to cabbage to celery and then reversed the order by using celery, cabbage, and lettuce with. whatever else could be found to pad out the salad, and round and round we moved. We still, of course, move in rotation, but of late one other spoke has been added to the wheel and that extra spoke is Witloof chicory or French endive.
Read ArticleBeautifying the Trash Vile
THE trash pile is inevitable. It is the catch-all for the rubbish of the yard and house; it is the thorn in the side of many a homemaker. In spite of our most careful planning and care, rubbish will collect. We must have a place for such debris, and usually that place is unsightly.
Read Articlekitchen System
EVERYTHING in its place, and a place for everything, is the ideal of every methodical woman, but with several persons helping around a kitchen it is difficult, if not impossible, to maintain this ideal. The bread-knife will get in the drawer with the kitchen tools, the paring-knife with the small utensils. the kitchen spoons among the silver.
Read ArticlePot Herbs for All Gardens
ALTHO flavoring herbs are used quite often by the good homemaker when preparing the most palatable dishes for the family, nevertheless, very few home gardens contain an area devoted to the growth of these "palate satisfiers." They not only require a very small space, but if properly grouped, they also add a peculiar variety and charm to the kitchen garden.
Read ArticleThe First American Home
A WOMAN constructed the first dwelling in the United States. It was a tent of skins stitched together with sinew and waterproofed at the seams with buffalo tallow. A splinter of bone served as a needle. The woman's husband, using a sharpened stone, cut lodge poles, which he dragged to the home site.
Read ArticleTHE GARDEN CLINIC
APRIL is one of the most fascinating months of the year. In the North, it is the month of expectations-- in the South, the month of fulfillment. In the North each day we hope and expect some other plant will show signs of life or blooming, for even in severe climates, we may have bloom in our gardens if we have planned wisely.
Read ArticleTool craft Projects for Spring
NEARLY every home workshop enthusiast has made garden sticks, usually of wood sawed out by hand or machine, but few have tried to cast garden sticks of metal. The patterns may be taken to the foundry and cast of iron or other metal, but it is very interesting to cast them at home, using scrap lead, which can be melted over any flame. Boys enjoy making the castings as much as dad ever enjoyed casting lead soldiers and bullets.
Read ArticleThe Children's Pleasure Chest
HERE is a surprise for all the boys and girls who read The Children's Pleasure Chest. It's a contest about birds! Read directions carefully.
Read ArticleACROSS The EDITOR'S DESK
THIS issue is the largest in the history of Better Homes and Gardens. And yet there are so many things that we wanted to crowd into it that we felt as tho we could have filled an issue twice this large. Subjects are lined up in an eager row, anxious to be recognized. The year has started out very favorably, and we can promise many more fine things in the coming numbers.
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