February 1938

ACROSS THE Editor's DESK

The Picture on the Cover: There'll be no helter-skelter planting this spring in this couple's garden. No running down to the grocery some warm evening after work to grab a handful of seed packets. For these two know it's fun, and smart, these lusty winter evenings, to plan ahead. By poring over seed and nursery catalogs and Better Homes & Gardens by finding out about new plants and how and where to plant them, they're assuring themselves a garden of which they'll be proud.

IT'S NEWS TO ME!

"PONDERING a pool, an arbor, or an archway for your garden this year?" queries Paul Frese. "With house, garage, walks, driveways, hedges or fence, sometimes it's an interesting problem to accommodate the garden features you really want, all on a small lot.

DRESS YOUR HOME WITH Plantings

THIS long, low, white house stands close to the front of a 100 by 150-foot lot which is higher in front than the sidewalk and drops down 10 feet to the rear level which overlooks beautiful Lake Washington. The problem here was to obtain privacy, to play up the best architectural features with plantings, to conceal as much as possible the built-in garage on one side, and at the same time to give a feeling of perspective to a strip of ground less than 40 feet wide in front of the house.

BLUE RIBBON ANNUALS FOR 1938

SOMEWHERE in your seed catalogs you must have read these words, "Winner of All-America Award." Have you wondered what was meant? Are you aware that these words can help guide you in choosing your new flowers this year? They can, and in this way:

OTHER New Flowers

ANNUAL flowers not winning awards mustn't be overlooked, because many novelties aren't entered in the All-America competition. From hundreds of promising new kinds, we've selected a number which are instinct, judging from our own observations and from early reports.

ROSES IN YOUR GARDEN?

IF YOU'VE ever visited rose shows and have seen the perfect flowers bearing blue ribbons, or have talked to some of the happy people who grew those prize-winning blooms, you just can't help catching the fever to grow roses, too; that is, unless you're one of those unfortunate beings who lives in a trailer and has no place to raise anything but a cloud of dust.

LOOK AT THIS GARDEN Grow

SINCE the beginning of time gardening has been one of the chief delights of man. The earliest records reveal this fact. The delightful part of it is that this hobby, unlike many others, can be enjoyed by anyone. Those of us who have the smallest plot of ground can grow just as fine flowers as estate owners.

THE Old South LIVES AGAIN!

IT IS youth and not age that reigns triumphant in old Natchez. Thrilling, vibrant youth, that enters into the spirit of Easter-time pilgrimages with all the zest and elan of the glamorous antebellum days. Youth expressed in tableaux of the Confederate Ball, the ballet, the garlanded musicians, the audience-- happy and vivacious.

YOUR 1938 FLOOR-COVERINGS

Remember, in Buying Your Floor-Covering: That a rug ought to be in harmony with the general period or trend of your furnishings.

Shopping FOR FURNITURE?

SKILLFUL Surgery RESTORED THIS HOME

ALOT of their friends said they'd be crazy to remodel some old house. You go and sink a lot of money into an old place, they said, and when you finish all you have is a monstrosity full of rattling windows and inconveniences.

ALL SET FOR FUN

FOR holiday-rife February a bit of imagination can put a lot of fun into entertaining. One can go romantic to the heart's content for St. Valentine. Even the men won't huff at a pink and white color scheme, when it's strawberry ice cream and white cake!

Snacks FROM THE EMERGENCY SHELF

ROBUST, and grub-staked for snacks-- that's the way we like our emergency shelf these winter days and nights, when all the family forages a snack that's almost a fourth meal!

WHY BUILD FOR ONLY NOW?

HERE, we believe, is a lifetime house, a house that will be as comfortable for a family of five as for two, as charming in 50 years as it is today. Already its design has withstood the test of time. You can trace it directly to the early days of New England; directly to those forthright, God-fearing Colonists. Yet houses with its 200-year-old simplicity are cherished today, while 50-year-old structures stand vacant. And tomorrow, when many of our present-day homes will seem as outdated as their Victorian predecessors, houses like this will still be cherished, for the beauty of simplicity endures.

NEW Window Shelves FOR YOUR PLANTS

MEET SOME NEW Garden-Helpers

Hidden Articles

MRS. SHULTZ VISITS THE Quints

THE house of the quintuplets is long, low, and sprawling. It has no discernible style of architecture, because, like many a comfortable, rambling home, it has grown with the needs of the children who live in it.

Laundry-Closet Remodeling Trick

REMODELING your home? If you are you're in the mood to back off and look at existing realities thru magic glasses. If it's the home you've been living in, you'll have a long list of ideas for streamlining its arrangement as well as its decoration.

THE Question BEFORE THE HOUSE

We'd like to replace our worn library floor with a pattern-work floor. Is the cost of pattern-work prohibitive?

HERE'S AN Idea!

"Strictly Business"

BACK in high school days John A. and Richard M. learned that they were natural partners. John was the born organizer; Richard had the gift of salesmanship. Today they're partners in a prosperous hardware business.

Self-Branching Ivy

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

For the moment there seems some danger that electric razors will force men to adopt sit-down dressing tables like the wife's for their 15-minute facial mowings.

I'M A D. D

DOORS can be the most contrary things! After two applications of light oil to the hinges of one of mine, it still squeaked. There was something else wrong. I loosened the hinges and the squeak stopped. By trial and error I found the trouble.

Smart Cooks

FEBRUARY'S contest for good, different, and dependable oyster and pancake or waffle recipes ran pretty much to oyster dishes and waffles. Pancakes made a poor finish.

SEE HOW TO Prune

Shrub Pruning: Shrubs are of two kinds. Some bloom on new twigs produced during the current season; they're late spring or summer blooming; for example, roses and Bush-althea. Others have buds ready to open when spring arrives; for example, FloweringQuince and Forsythia.

THE Diary OF A PLAIN DIRT GARDENER

Feb. 2 Tonight as I sat at my desk in the study, in came David, 8 years old, to undress for bed beside the brisk fire in the fireplace.

A NEW MULCH--Class Wool

SNOW, considered the best winter mulch a plant can have, has found its equal in glass wool, according to Professor R. C. Allen, of Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Tender plants, tucked under a white, fluffy blanket, come thru the winter better than ever before.

ALONG THE GARDEN PATH

OUR eyes are frequently bigger than our horticultural stomachs. There're so many schemes we'd like to carry out, so many interesting groups of plants exciting us to experimentation, that we're under constant pressure to start much more than we can ever hope, in the normal course of events, to finish. Every plant-loving Adam's son (or daughter, for that matter) is in danger of helping himself to a larger slice of floral pie than is good for his digestion.