February 1933

Winter Revelations

It's Part of Your Home

IN THESE days, when little minutes are all that separate you from miles of town and country scenery, your home garden has been almost incredibly lengthened and broadened.

ACROSS THE EDITOR'S DESK

MANY times we have mentioned the spirit of hospitality that pervades the average American garden, and have contrasted it with the somewhat aloof and shut-off garden that is common in England. There are arguments on both sides, to be sure. Many people of all nations like privacy in their gardens like that in their own living-rooms. And yet, of course, living-rooms may also be hospitable.

The Diary of a Plain Dirt Gardener

FEBRUARY 3. Come right in, folks, and let me show you the first garden treasure of the year. I spied it this afternoon, a little yellow jewel, right out in the seedframe where I grew it from seed last summer. It looked so tiny I didn't have the nerve to transplant it last fall.

In February I Plan My Garden Hospitality

AS I sit at a window looking out on the garden this February morning, planning the garden-to-be, setting "can't-haves" in their places, and counting over my "must-haves" for the year, I find my chiefest longing is for a garden that shall welcome the passer-by.

A Trip to Tree Dreamland

TREES hibernate in winter, much like the bears, except that, unlike the bears, they sleep right out in the open, wholly uncovered, wholly free, happy in the wind, the rain, the sleet, and the winter sunshine. The winter months indeed bring them a surcease from the arduous labors they have performed since early spring.

A Doctor Looks Into the Medicine Chest

THE sort of medicine chest I shall suggest differs widely from some all of us have seen. One sort is a hodgepodge, with dad's shaving gear, mother's beauty aids, and the shoepolish bottles and tins for the family.

What to Look for When You Buy Furniture

TO THE casual observer a table is just so much table, and yet we know that there are differences in tables and other furniture that may make one piece merely commonplace and another a masterpiece. How can the layman judge a piece of furniture according to its merits?

Here's How to Make Them

QUILTS may come and quilts may go, but still the quilt designs that Grandmother found suitable for her household are among our loveliest and most popular designs today. You have but to go to a quilt fair to find this out yourself.

Build Me Something Simple

ONE of the most beautiful types of architecture, produced in America or anywhere else, and one which has proved the most desirable and most successful for many generations, is that generally known as Georgian Colonial, of which the home on these pages is a stunning example.

Informal Meals

"TOM is so very fond of pancakes," remarked a young homemaker, "but he doesn't like to have me in the kitchen baking them. Could I get some sort of an electric table-stove that would cook them at the table?"

Must Bouquets Be Made of FLOWERS?

ONE may have bouquets the year round and not feel wasteful. I might mention that I have some memories of bouquets which are quite as vivid as the flowers I looked at but half an hour ago. Perhaps they were accidental masterpieces or maybe some one feature in their makeup-- the color, or the fitness of the flowers to the vase, or often, I suspect, an appeal to the fragrance, or a special affection for the person who presented them-- commended them to my attention while they lasted and fixed them in my memory long after they faded.

What You Want to Read

THE best read man I ever knew said that he went to college in the street car, because it was there that he first started serious reading, when he was forced to leave the formal education of a high school and become a grocery-store delivery boy. To the day of his death he always carried a slim volume of something really good to read in all the many odd wasted moments of a day.

Your Neighbors' Children

WHAT attitude shall I take," inquires a reader, "toward some neighborhood children whom I pity very much but who are undesirable? I know it isn't their fault, but am I to foster their companionship with my children?

Some Old Notions Topple

I HAVE found that moist soil at the surface of a clay pot does not necessarily indicate that the plant has sufficient water.

Youth for the Middle-aged Home

THERE are no "stock" plans for remodeling a home. True, we gather much inspiration and valuable knowledge and suggestion from the always intriguing "before" and "after" illustrations in Better Homes arid Gardens. Home after home may be published with a detailed story of each, yet the actual application concerns some other home than our own.

Let Your Dining-Room Do Double Duty

IN THE homes built for our grandfathers, two parlors, front and back, were considered necessary to gracious living. Whatever fault we may find with the General Grant type of home plan, there is much to be said for the double parlors. They made it possible for two or more living-room activities to take place simultaneously-- entertaining callers, for example, without routing other members of the family engrossed in books or games.

Where Do We Plant This? And That?

THE hour for the 6-A class arrived. The teacher was standing at her desk so stiffly erect that we knew something important was going to happen.

Kitchen Bouquet

AMONG OURSELVES

YOU'VE heard about the ancient king who once figured out that if he could only tell who was the most important person, where was the most important place, and what was the most important thing to do, he would be the greatest man in the world.

February Club Observances

THIS month the club department is particularly directed to that active person in every club, the social-committee chairman, who will know without my mentioning it that February is the perfect party month.

Your Home Service Bureau

IF YOU have not already done so, send immediately for your copy of the 1933 Better Homes and Gardens Simplified Family Budget Book. It is only 25 cents a copy and it will help you to put your family's finances on a sane and businesslike basis this year.

"Just like me"

LAST summer, when Betsy visited Grandmother, she became very fond of Grandmother's chickens, and often would go out to the chicken house with Grandmother to care for them. Betsy has remembered the chickens and likes to tell about them now:

ALONG THE GARDEN PATH

WE HAVE been living all winter with the plants we loved so much when we brought them indoors last fall. We look at our cactus which has not bloomed and at our English Ivy, but one glance at the seed catalogs which have just arrived is sufficient to send our thoughts wandering toward springtime, seeds, and gay-colored flowers. After all, these house plants seem so stationary and so lacking in emotion as compared to the fairy stories which the seedsmen are asking us to read.