June 1936

Across the Editor's Desk

FROM the beginnings of mankind, it seems that the natural instinct of the male has been to rove abroad, seeking adventure, wealth, food for his family, while the female has tended toward the quieter existence in and near the home.

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THE Diary OF A PLAIN DIRT GARDENER

June 1 Brother, it was a glorious day, for the first peony --not counting the old red "piney"-- was out, none other than that good bright red, Richard Carvel.

IT'S news TO ME!

"THE clever way to light your garden at night," explains Alfred Hottes to Nick, "is to arrange subtle beams and splashes of light. Let none of the equipment show, and light from two or more separate units-- to give depth to your garden view. First, dimly lift night's curtain with a small floodlight in a tree. Then plan to feature a spot, such as a garden-entertainmentnook.

BRING JUNE BEAUTY Indoors

BEAUTIFUL gardens usually owe much of their loveliness to color. Sheets of crocus on the lawn in early spring, gay alpines in the rockery, showy perennials in the summer border, and drifts of chrysanthemums in the fall all emphasize the important part that color plays in the outdoor garden.

Get in Tune With Summer

A FEW yards of gaily colored chintz --and miracles can happen! Haven't you noticed that rooms, like people, take on a blithe new look in summer clothes? And the simplicity of bringing this summeriness into your home is the happiest thing about it.

June Weather All the Time

THE perfect June day has been a weatherwise ideal all of us have looked forward to in the blustering cold of winter and vainly wished for during the muggy heat of August. But most of us have been pretty well resigned to the fact that June comes but once in a twelvemonth and, however much we might wish to, there's been very little anyone could do about capturing its glorious weather the year round.

Paths THAT GO PLACES AND DO THINGS

"YOU can't tell where she means for you to go," expostulated a little old lady in a bewildered aside to me while out on a garden pilgrimage riot long ago-- "I can't get the plan!"

How To Plan Your Rose Garden

Enjoy a Fireplace in Your Back Yard

DO YOU like corn roasts? Or thick, juicy steaks grilled over a charcoal fire? Does the aroma of wood smoke and boiling coffee whet your appetite until your mouth fairly waters? But perhaps your picnics have been of the peanut-butter sandwich, thermos-bottle coffee variety.

IT'S Fault-Proof

YOU may be able to explain away the shortcomings of your children by pleading one excuse or another. For instance, when your neighbor says, "You see, Johnny would be all right if it weren't that he inherited a weak heart-- and besides, if you knew those boys he plays with--"

THEY Poured IT!

POURED concrete as a practical and economical type of construction is demonstrated in this new home of Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Blevins, Better Homes & Gardens' readers of New Orleans, designed by Weiss, Dreyfous, and Seiferth, architects.

WEEK-END Cabin IN WISCONSIN

THIS week-end log cabin of Mr. and Mrs. Ernst Mahler, Belter Homes & Gardens' readers of Neenah, Wisconsin, originally started out to be a child's playhouse. It's still, actually, a playhouse for Peter Mahler and his friends to use. But its fascination for grown-ups and its conveniences make it equally in demand as a house in summer, and no one can deny that it's an intimate, comfortable place that makes you feel at home.

BY Day BY Night

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

For the young doctors of philosophy in this June's crop, a worthy and valuable research might be a thesis entitled "The Critical Attitude of Wives Toward the Haircuts of Their Husbands." It's a topic which embattles about two ... a month.

Time to Overhaul

SINCE every club should once a year overhaul its club activities, why not, in the leisure following the spring adjournment, bring forth those cluttering club habits that have outlived their usefulness, and renovate them?

HELP THEM HAVE Fun

HERE'S a sand-box (photograph 1) sheltered to protect a playing child from the full force of the sun's rays during mid-day and afternoon, yet it allows enough sun from the sides for health. It was made at small expense from bits of left-over lumber and roofing paper.

Last Call for Flower Boxes

THAT paint color-card is one sure sign of approaching summer. When Friend Husband at last brings it home there's a determined glitter in his eye that says, "This job has just got to be done --and now!"

Handmade FOR SUMMER HOMES

SOMETHING magic in the sunshine and the soft, warm wind wakes up that old itch in us to do something-- just anything-- to coax light and air in at our windows. So why not retire the winter draperies till next fall and sun ourselves thru net? We've stocked a French ecru lace net in open mesh that's delightfully sheer, yet at the same time durable.

Adventures in Cabinetmaking

OUR crying need for a good chest of drawers in a bedroom was our first adventure into the realm of cabinetmaking. In an old second-hand furniture store ... looked the stock over very thoroly and brought to light a tall, old-fashioned chest of drawers just the size we wanted, complete with the usual gingerbread trimmings but basically sound and well made of good, solid oak.

Considerate Lilies

I PASSED them on a hiking trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park-- a barefoot mountain boy and a thin "yaller" hound such as you see around cabins in the Tennessee hill country.

My Jar Garden

WHEN time and space are too limited, but the gardening urge persists, plant a strawberry jar (as photographed) brimful --not a small, dainty one-- but a jar that will supply the pleasure of change derived from a real garden.

PACK UP AND GO

"REMEMBER that summer we went camping?" "There's a picture of Sue fishing. I never will forget how good those fish tasted."

Those Embarrassing Moments

AS MRS. SMITH tells the story-- and she likes to tell it-- she was sitting sewing peacefully when her son Larry, 6 years old, entered, stopped squarely in front of her and said, "You're a blankety, blankety blank!"

We're Dining Out

"SUPPER'S in the back yard!" That's the switch that turns on our family's cooling system.

For 5 Years She Watched Plants

DAY by day, for five years, Lucille Teeter Kissack observed bulbs, perennials, annuals, and shrubs to learn exactly when they bloomed in her garden.

Home Economist Favors Teaching of Advertising

WOULD-BE Reformers are much in evidence these days. They are in the reforming business primarily to make money for themselves. They work by appealing to the prejudices of people, by presenting half truths as absolute truths, by crying "wolf" when there is no wolf, and by other methods of deception.

Tattle Tales

EVERY month an average of more than 30 carloads of paper roll into the Meredith Publishing Company plant. Where do they come from?

Watering Time-Cut

HAVEN'T you always hated the job of standing in your yard, holding the hose and squirting water here and there so all the grass will get a good soaking and be so much greener than your neighbors'?

POPPING THE Rose Questions

BY JUNE most beginning gardeners have fallen hopelessly in love with the roses, and are popping questions of courtship.

Paths That Go Places and Do Things

Canny persons have learned to be on the lookout for probable sources of used bricks of the types used in early brick pavings and sidewalks. The prices are comparatively cheap and when the bricks are re-set in the garden they're even superior for having worn edges. Get yourself some foot-long lengths of angle-iron in the 1- to 1¼-inch sizes.

ALONG THE GARDEN PATH

SO FAR as I've been able to find out (and I've gone pretty thoroly into the matter), the only way to grow flowers and at the same time avoid honest perspiration is to shun gardening as the devil flees from holy water.