June 1933

Across the Editor's Desk

HERE is concrete proof that home life in America is steadily growing stronger and not disintegrating, as some writers have asserted:

Modernize Now!

MODERNIZE! Renovize! Rebuild! These are three words you hear and read everywhere today, for a great wave of home improvement is sweeping America ...begun by the Better Homes and Gardens National Better Homes Contest.

It's News to Me!

Good Morning: Will you have your breakfast on the screened-in porch, or will you a-la-carte it to the garden? "For the man who must spend his days inside pretty much," says Josephine Wylie, "a breakfast eaten out in the garden or yard starts the day pleasantly and joyously. It may be cooked in the kitchen and carried out; or rubber-coated extension cords will bring even waffle-making and the electric percolator safely to your outdoor table."

Food Feud

There Are Roofs and Roofs

FROM the dawn of history man has struggled for a roof over his head and his progress in civilization is recorded by the steady improvement in the shelter he has provided for himself.

Here's the Way to Grow the Large-Flower Chrysanthemums

THE first thing to do when you get the chrysanthemum fever, and most of us do sooner or later, is to decide definitely for what purpose you want to grow them. Are they for home decoration, garden display, or show specimens?

Good Times Ahead!

IF YOU can lose yourself completely in a first-rate novel and come back from the world of creative imagination with new vision, then these new novels will bring you, as they have me, joy and refreshment, good times. H. G. Wells, Sinclair Lewis, Christopher Morley, Robert Nathan-- all have written novels of outstanding excellence, or provocative vigor.

Oh, the Joy in It!

DONALD B. WALKER, of Cleveland, Ohio, who won the second prize in our "Before and After" Home-Furnishings Contest last year, had a summer cottage that was finished with nothing but framing studs and sheathing, but with simple additions and suitable furnishings he achieved a very livable home, as you can see.

If Your Garden Colors Clash

COLOR in the garden is a subject no gardener could possibly ignore, and in the words of the old jingle, "He would not, if he could, would he?" It is simply brimming over with interest for everyone who has come to realize that growing a patch of flowers does not mean that we have a garden which wholly satisfies.

I Love the Oldtime Posies

THERE is so much more to a garden than we can see, or hear, or touch, or smell. I am talking about a real garden-- it need not be large, for size does not matter. It need not have cost much-- as money goes. It does not even have to be an old garden.

Gay to the End

ONE October day as I was riding on a bus thru a New York suburb I saw several clumps of tall purple and shorter orange flowers set against a planting of dwarf evergreens. The combination was so strikingly beautiful, especially so considering the time of year, that I got off the bus to see if I had guessed correctly the kinds of plants they were.

A Busy Businessman Finds a Hobby

WINSTON CHURCHILL builds stone walls around his estate at Chartwell Manor-- King George of England collects stamps-- John Barrymore picks up odd animals as pets-- Helen Wills Moody puts her racquet aside for the paint brush.

Yes, It's to Be Expected!

"KIDS are a mystery to me," chuckled the father of a 16-year-old. "Last year I bought my boy Bob an old Ford, paying $29 for it, and if anything, $29 was too much. It had four wheels and a sort of an engine, and that was all you could say for it. The boys affectionately named it Gramma.

June, Roses, a Party, and Fun

A. PLAY with roses-- a June garden party-- we'll invite our mothers and all the neighbors in our Junior Garden Club Neighborhood Yard and Garden Contest. This will help keep each of them interested in her garden thruout the summer.

He Always Gets His Bug

BLUNDERING along among the clods at the bottom of the bean rows, the beetle sought a way to return to the leafy feast from which he had awkwardly fallen. Once or twice he raised his wing-covers and half spread his wings, as tho he might take to the air; then, being heavy bodied and sluggish, he decided otherwise and continued to scramble along, seeking a stalk to climb or a drooping leaf making contact with the ground.

The Diary of a Plain Dirt Gardener

June 1 This morning I saw bloom on my new Iris Jacqueline Guillot, a lovely grayish lavender-blue but of a drooping, clinging- vine type. My old peony friend Felix Crousse, in pleasant silky crimson coat, was open to greet me.

What You Want to Know About Climbing Roses

OF ROSES I might paraphrase Shakespeare and say, "Age cannot wither or custom stale their infinite variety," for I am constantly amazed by the different kinds of beauty they display. Creation has endowed no other flower with such a multiplicity of forms, unless it be orchids, but they must divide their glory among several hundred families, while the rose displays its multitudinous splendors within the limits of a single genus.

Church Lots Can Look Like This

THE photographer who had been called to take a picture of the lot back of the Independent Presbyterian Church, Birmingham, Alabama, stared about unbelievingly. "Now why do they want a picture of this?"

Still More Prizewinners!

TO REMODEL or not to remodel was the question. To wreck our old cottage and rebuild seemed impractical, as it was well constructed and the materials were remarkably sound and substantial. On the other hand, it was hard to visualize a plan with proper architectural lines and a practical inside arrangement.

ALONG THE GARDEN PATH

JUNE-- then if ever come perfect days-- made perfect by realization of our early spring anticipations. Only a few short months ago we planted our roses, and now they are bursting into bud and flower; some have already passed, ready to produce their seed.