June 1935

Across the Editor's Desk

ONE of the most heart-warming experiences I ever had came unexpectedly the other day when a young man 28 years old walked into my office with the story of a little home he had just finished, doing all the carpenter work and decorating with his own hands, out of office hours.

THE Diary OF A PLAIN DIRT GARDENER

What a happy reunion I had this morning up and down the paths before breakfast, as, notebook in hand, I darted here and yon. My old friends the peonies were back once more-- sweet Georgiana Shaylor and mysterious Lady Alexandra Duff and dependable Felix Crousse, and the aristocratic Nina Secor and royal Alice Harding and somewhat frowzy but likeable Marguerite Gerard.

IT'S News TO ME!

"A NEW CAR," says Nick, "should have a good waxing. Then bring on your sun, rain, and elements!" In the sketch you see him giving our not-so-new car the whole works-- a combined auto cleaner and polish, enamel for the rust spots, and he finishes with a wax.

Home of a Famous Better Homes & Gardens Photographer

YOU may have often noticed in Better Homes & Gardens a tiny line of type "Photograph by Rittase."

Let's Arrange Flowers Today

"OH, YOU must have magic in your fingers; you cast a witch's spell over your flowers. They seem to do just what you wish."

He Got His Start With a Weed Garden

EVERY well-regulated novel of English country life has in it a Scotch Gardener. He talks with a burr, is as prickly as his native thistle, and is made entirely of oatmeal and the songs of Robbie Burns. In Utopia and the Blessed Isles, you realize half the poets, half the beverages, and all the gardeners, surely must be Scotch.

IT'S Sport To Grow Roses

GROWING roses is one of the finest outdoor sports in America. Of course, as in any other sport, you cannot always win, but your game will improve with practice.

A HOUSE FOR THE South

THESE two houses have an identical plan or room arrangement. Only their exteriors are different. The House for the South is distinguished by its tall-columned porch, covering the delightful lie-on-your-stomach windows.

A HOUSE FOR THE North

ONE Slip LEADS TO ANOTHER

SLIP-COVERS answer many problems. Take our Cogswell chair, for instance! Because every member of the family finds it comfortable, it has a way of becoming the shabbiest in our living-room. Yet not one of us would part with it! So what to do to keep it looking trim? We use a slip-cover, of course.

Call It A Place of Mellow Beauty

AFTER a picnic dinner we settled ourselves in low-hung canvas chairs, feet cushioned in the grass. The moon came up before long. There was a cool, fragrant little breeze blowing, the soft splash of water, a stirring among the leaves in the green wall behind us. We were only a mile from the sweltering city, only a scant hundred feet from an arterial highway, yet we were apparently as removed from the rest of the world as if we'd been in the Vale of Cashmir or in far Cathay.

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

Most dangerous age for a homeowner: When he discovers that for a modest sum he can have a new door or a window cut thru almost any blank wall in the house.

Program Chairman-- ATTENTION!

ARE you a program chairman? Then all of us club-goers can sympathize. The job of planning programs is difficult, but interesting and important, since so much of the club's success depends on this one person's efforts.

When Parents Send Out an S. O. S.

OFTEN I have wondered if there is in this world an authority on child training so expert that he does not long at times for someone who can tell him just the right thing to do about his own children!

Needlepoint

TODAY only a few of us have time and talent for the most difficult part of needlepoint-- the intricate working-out of patterns. But all who love needlecraft can find joy in combining their skill with that of expert artisans.

Better Quality THAN OTHER CLASSES

UNOBTRUSIVELY Government investigators wandered into many a grocery store in Detroit, Memphis, and Des Moines. They bought cans of vegetables, cans of fruits-- some bearing the brands and labels of great national advertisers, some bearing labels less well known.

My Garden Flowers of June

IS THERE a heart so heavy or eye so dull that it does not lighten and brighten with the coming of June? The month's very atmosphere does a grand job of housecleaning in the most cynical of souls.

Over the Hills by the Carload

"Up WITH your feet, Jimmy! Now let's squeeze this suitcase in there on end. And, sister, if you'll move close to Jimmy, we'll tuck the hat box in beside you. Just think, we're driving all the way to Washington and it's almost 1,200 miles. Won't that be fun?"

Over the Hills by the Carload

On a map of the country the children crossed off the states from which they had seen license plates. It was one of many impromptu pastimes involving the cars on the highway-- their makes, numbers, colors, and such. Finally, Oregon, Maine, and Mississippi were the only ones missing from our collection.

Make It Corned Beef Hash and Ice Cream

My Kitchen Makes High Score

This Dusty World

DUST may seem at first sight to be very homely, prosaic, and uninteresting, connected with maps, dust-cloths, suction sweepers, brooms, and dirt roads in summer. "Dust and dirt"-- to most of us they mean simply "matter out of place."

FOR THE Wall Flower

The Bulbs That Bloom in the Fall, Tra-La

ARE you one of those blue Monday persons? I am, too, and I don't feel ashamed of it, either! It's not because we've eaten too much on Sunday, or exercised too little. Certainly we don't dread the especially busy day that comes at the beginning of the week-- either in office or home. It's something more than that, I think. It's because Saturday is our next day of escape into the sun and outdoor living, and Saturday is very far away, indeed.

A Random Flag Walk

ONE evening I was pondering the problem of making a random-patterned walk. It was to be a long one and the estimated cost of any sort of flat stone seemed prohibitive, not to mention the labor and waste of breaking stones into the desired shapes for patterning.

ALONG THE Garden Path

JUNE brings most of us more flowers than we have at any other season of the year, which means that we have at our fingertips an abundance of flower colors, forms, and textures. Of all the months, this is the least extravagant in which to practice the flower-arrangement inspirations of the year.