May 1932

ACROSS THE EDITOR'S DESK

WELL, here we are in another part of the magazine, exchanging places with the "Garden Path," which is now found in our old location, page 100.

The Diary of a Plain Dirt Gardener

MAY 1. A visitor drove in tonight to see the garden-- a bluff Irishman, with his wife.

Father Plans a Picnic

A RARE day in May or June or-- well, most any time; woodsmoke curling upward; and oh! that most tantalizing of odors from a sizzling, brown steak; and mingling with it a fragrant aroma of coffee-- it's a picnic in the most joyous sense of the word.

We Help the Bride Furnish Her New Home

FORTUNATE is the bride who is going to furnish her home this spring. She need not complain if her budget is limited, for never have furniture and furnishings been so low in price, nor their design and quality so excellent.

Practical Hints for Perennial Borders

STAKE BEFORE a storm rather than after it. Such good advice-- why don't we take it! We are perennial optimists. "Perhaps," we say to ourselves, "there will be no June Delphinium Wind, this year, to flatten our sky-rocketing hybrids."

The World's Most Valuable Dust

THAT colored dust which blossoms drop on your living-room table or which make tiny streaks on your hand as you brush against blossoms is pollen. Have you ever seen it under a microscope? If you have you know that this simple dust, which is a lifegiving product of plants, is really a mass of thousands upon thousands of the most minute and most beautiful forms you can possibly imagine.

A Garden 3000 Miles Long

CAN you imagine a garden reaching from New York to Los Angeles? Can you picture a continuous city block, about four hundred feet wide, stretching three thousand miles from coast to coast and every mile closely planted-- no, not with corn or potatoes but with flowers and trees, bulbs, and shrubs?

Shall We Make a Child Take Music Lessons?

HAPPY is the home in which music has an honored place, in which mother sings to her babies and small children, in which she plays for their songs and games as they become a little older, and in which the growing boys and girls are drawn naturally into a musical group, singing and perhaps playing various games together.

A Small Gardened Home for a Small Sum

THIS charming Colonial home, beautifully and simply gardened at small cost, is small enough to be built from the savings or the income of newly married couples or by most of us that have average incomes. Yet it is also large enough, comfortable enough, and convenient enough to form the basis of real happiness in living.

The Cost to Build This Home

A 2-CENT stamp, for postage and handling, will bring you a complete list of materials required to build this home, with the exact quantities of each item. This list, carefully prepared by experts, is a part of Better Homes and Gardens' BILDCOST GARDENED-HOME PLAN.

Nancy's Neighborhood Playground

BEFORE we moved to our own home we had ambitious plans for a vegetable plot, a rock garden, and a play yard. Contemplation of the 29- by 37-foot plot behind the house convinced us that we had been a bit far-reaching. Small Nancy's ability to make lightning disappearances brought us to the decision that a backyard attractive enough to hold her at least a part of the time was most important.

In Praise of Hen-and-chickens

HEN-AND-CHICKENS-- Sempervivums-- Houseleeks-- Jove's Beard-- however they are tagged, are among the most lovable of plant families. They are a tribe without a single little black lamb.

Should We Share Our Family Letters

A LETTER has come from George, who is away from home on a trip. The absentee's handwriting is instantly recognized, of course, by his sister Anne, who has met the postman at the door. She calls out the news to the household. Immediately the family is agog, for a letter from George is always an event.

IRIS, Truly the Flower for All

WE SAY that the rose is the queen of flowers. We speak of the violet as modest, and of the peony as the true aristocrat. The cactus is a brilliant Southerner, and the rhododendron is a native of the North. But what of the iris?

The Rebuilt Home I Stopped to Admire

ON ONE of the roads leading into the back country from Southport, Connecticut, is this modern home made of what was formerly a tiny New England farmhouse, one hundred forty or fifty-- no one can say exactly how many years old. Certainly the tall elms and maples which shelter it have stood there for many years, and I wondered whether they or the home came first to take possession of this quiet bit of ground.

Salads That Belong

SOME things just naturally go together-- you know that! "Where the genius who guessed that the heart of lettuce hungered for the tomato?" wrote a famous biographer and editor, deploring that fact that we do not honor sufficiently the heroes and heroines who invent for our lasting pleasure those "so good" combinations of food.

The Hawthorn Maypole

IT'S May time, Junior Gardeners-- the time of lilacs, tulips, woodland jaunts, May baskets, Maypoles, and blossoming hawthorn trees. May brings so much that is beautiful to see, so much that is interesting to do, and so much to enjoy that our heads fairly swim with the joy of being alive.

A Little Brick Home in New York

WITHIN a decade the demand for suburban living has increased at an astounding rate. Each season scores of people move from bleak shadows and the noise, confusion, and dangerous congestion of our great cities to quiet, peaceful, health-giving localities beyond. Where and how to secure a small home of convincing character and charm without excessive cost is yet the most difficult of all things involved in the exodus.

Let Me Tell You About the Hardiest Roses

WE WERE standing in a North Dakota garden before the Amelie Gravereaux Rugosa Hybrids in late September. Clarence Wedge, veteran horticulturist of Minnesota, was speaking: "Ah-may-lee Grav-roh," Mr. Wedge slowly pronounced the name as he held the bloom in his hand and softly stroked it with a finger.

Combining Pleasure and Profit

WE HAVE recently built a new home and have had the usual problem of planning our small lot for beauty and yet having room for a utility garden for small fruits and vegetables.

Four Playhouses for Little Boys and Girls

"MOTHER, where can we play house?" "Why must we always put away our toys when company comes?"

My Garden Clad in White

WHEN I was searching recently for a somewhat "different" garden, there came to my memory a garden dear to my childhood. It belonged to an old lady whose love of white flowers was as notable as her penchant for endowing each of her possessions with a personality.

Let's Dress Up the Guest Room

ONE convenience we always enjoy in a hotel room that often is not provided for the home guest is a luggage rack! Chairs are no more necessary for us to sit upon than is a luggage rack whereon our bag may repose.

For Summer Ease and Summer Teas

THIS month, as I promised you, we are going to build some outdoor furniture, a table, and a choice of two benches. The benches should especially appeal to you if you happen to be the kind of gardener I am. You know-- the kind that weeds a while and every few minutes pauses to sit and meditate, and sometimes doesn't even meditate.

The Question Before the House

IN A ROOM 13 x 22 there is a fireplace at the end. May I build bookshelves at each side of the fireplace?

Five Sunporch Gardens

STAND at the door of your own sunporch or look out of its windows and perhaps you can visualize one of these little gardens for your own. Whether you have 16 or 40 feet between the porch and the property line, you have space for a garden.

OUR RECIPE CONTEST

HAVE you sent in your favorite recipes for frozen dishes? Better Homes and Gardens' Frozen Dishes Contest, as announced in the April issue, closes May 20.

Making a Rock Garden?

Our Baby-Health Service

The Children's Pleasure Chest

CHRISTOPHER WREN and his good wife Jenny were among the late arrivals in Plum Blossom Orchard. They had spent the winter months in the Southland visiting their cousins, the Carolina Wrens, and so delightful had been their stay that they delayed coming north as long as possible.

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ALONG THE GARDEN PATH

DO YOU happen to know the Virginian-stock? It is listed in the catalogs as Malcomia. You can buy it in purple, rose, and white. Because it is an annual which thrives in partial shade, it is a splendid flower to sow among shrubs, as it grows only a foot tall and introduces a bit of color among shrub branches. If you have a semiwild garden Virginian-stock is a splendid flower to sow.

Victoria, Queen of the Waters