July 1938

ACROSS THE Editor's DESK

The Picture on the Cover: It was made especially for Better Homes & Gardens by Edward Steichen (Sty'-ken), to whose famous Connecticut delphinium fields we introduce you on page 13. This picture, taken of course by Mr. Steichen in his fields, introduces you also to Dana Jenney, of New York City, and to some Steichen delphiniums as yet unnamed. The tall sky-blue variety in the background is being intensively propagated in the Steichen fields and bears the identification label "Better Homes & Gardens."

THE Diary OF A PLAIN DIRT GARDENER

July 1 Believe it or not, as this month opens, Maggie, the boys, and I are in Seattle, Washington, 2,500 miles from home. Maggie and the boys are having a good time and I'm worrying because the trip is costing too much. Maybe we'll be stranded out here and never get back home.

THEY'RE FOUND IN Every City

Fifty Thousand Children

I KNOW a man who parked his car in his New York office. Gulp down that statement with a grain of salt, if you like.

HOW TO Photograph FLOWERS

WHEN your lilacs are bursting into bloom, or your lilies are swaying on their stalks; when roses blush on bush or trellis; when chrysanthemums shake their shaggy heads; and when the pansy bed is a riot of color--

KEEP YOUR GARDEN Going

ONCE again we're coming into that season of year when maintenance is of first importance on the garden calendar. The time to start new things is almost, tho not entirely, past. The main objective now is to keep your garden going.

YOU CAN HAVE Lilies EARLY AND LATE

HARDY garden lilies, I'm convinced, are one of the most interesting, most delightful, but most exasperating groups of plants. They interest us with their great beauty, their diversity of form, and their long season of bloom. Yet they exasperate us by their waywardness.

A Little Home FOR THREE OR FOUR

A GLIMPSE of a white doorway-- bittersweet in the garden-- white clapboards in the sun --beach plum jelly in the windows-- and over it all the salty tang of the sea! Such is Cape Cod --that long, crooked arm of sand stretching from the canal on one end to the Provincetown art colonies on the other.

Throw away your shovel!

EVERYBODY was so absorbed in the game that no one noticed how cold the room had grown until one of the guests suddenly shivered violently. Then it was too late. Jones clashed to the basement and yanked open the furnace door, but no cheery glow of live coals greeted him. The fire--again!-- had gone out.

TWO HOMES FROM THE Rockies

MODERN, yet rugged and quaintly charming, is this home of the Wendell W. Monroes. Tho it's built on a street that slopes off to the right, and tho the house on the left rears high, it belongs precisely where it is, for Architect Lorenzo S. Young compensated for the big house and lot by placing the basement garage on the high side and the living-room and front entrance on the low side at a floor level below that of the rest of the house.

Sand Shade, AND Shelter

GIVE any child a pile of white sand, an assortment of odd tinware and spoons, and you provide a maximum of keen enjoyment for hours on end.

Among Ourselves

FOR Lazy Leisure

DOG days around the corner? Then there's just time to set the stage for a cool haven from the heat. Sunrooms are one possibility, porches another. Let's hide the winter upholstery for a starter. Flowered slip-covers work wonders, or simple pieces in rattan, metal, or white-painted wood lend that look of light airiness.

Comfort IN COTTAGE OR CABIN

Towel togs

THIS three-way garment may be worn fore or aft and fits sizes 16 to 20. It's made from four 22- by 44-inch bath towels. Choose towels with narrow borders fairly close to the ends. These four towels make the four flared sections of the skirt. The borders make the trim.

Ladies, Be Seated!

IRONING used to be my weekly Waterloo. It was a grand job to dream and scheme by, but terrifically hard on the feet. Then along came Santa, toting an electric ironer and turning the aftermath of washing into one of the most pleasant and effortless jobs I know.

Lazybones

WhAT do you do with the lazy child one you must light a fire under if you want him to do a simple task, one that won't get up in the morning for anything less than a major convulsion of Nature?"

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

With such a hullaballoo in the world, it's sorta consoling to see that the chap whose back yard adjoins ours still wears knitted union suits in July.

ALONG THE Garden Path

THERE'S little difference, I've always contended, between male and female intellects. Jack s as sparkling 'as Jill or Jill as dull as Jack, regardless cf biology. But when it comes to gardens and garden-making, that s something else again. A basic disparity in points of view does seem to obtain, and men, as a rule, are horticulturists; women are flower-minded.