August 1939

ACROSS THE Editor's Desk

ONE of America's ace authors, a so-called "modern," defines home as "a place where, when you go, they have to take you in." You'll agree that's rather neat.

TATTLE TALES

Fast-Traveling Lilies: Carveth Wells, one-half the family represented by the by-line on page 13, really needs no introduction to BH & G families, as his garden travelogs have appeared on these pages before.

Refuge

THE DIARY of a Plain Dirt Gardener

Four inches of rain since Saturday night. It's too wet to work the ground, so for exercise tonight I pulled weeds out of the back iris bed and contemplated the daylilies growing near by. I never realized as much as I have this summer what a tower of strength these big yellow or orange or lemon blossoms can be to the summer garden.

We Dug Our New Home Out of the Ground

IT'S fun to build a house in Bermuda, where the foundation and the walls and the roof are taken from the very ground you build upon-- where, in fact, you set the house over the hole it came out of, convert half of that hole into a huge water tank, home for a solitary goldfish, and leave the rest for your basement.

Pansy Success Begins in August

NO ONE can be a hero to his pansy bed. Some morning when you feel particularly proud and overbearing, when you feel like snubbing your best friend, try passing a pansy bed and see how the pansies look at you and bring you down to earth. For pansies are the most human of the garden flowers.

THREE MORE HOMES IN WHITE

COVER the first story in the top picture opposite and you'll see an example of how combinations of exterior materials give architects greater freedom in designing a house for maximum utility or economy. That house would have looked too high and narrow and stilted all in one material without the horizontal line of the band course to break the vertical lines and hold the house to the ground.

HOW TO Combine FURNITURE PERIODS

ADAM AND EVE are probably the only couple in history that didn't have to start homemaking with an accumulation of belongings. Lucky people! You and I, if we're going to decorate or redecorate our homes, must take into consideration the pots and pans, pianos and pictures we already own.

Gardens in White Are So Cool

MORE and more you're going to see hot-weather gardens in green and white. It's a coming thing. The idea of summerizing them is taking hold just as the idea n summerizing living-rooms with crisp slipcovers has taken hold. For unquestionably, outdoor living-rooms decorated with taffy white and the sage-and chartreuse-green draperies of Nature are more refreshingly cool than those which carry thru with the brilliant, rich colors of spring and fall.

Feather Your Garden

THE bird garden is the lazy man's garden, the easiest kind in the world to take care of. It's mostly trees and shrubs, and the wilder you let them grow, the more birds you attract --excuse enough for any man to sit back and puff his pipe over a good mystery novel.

Bildcost Picks Another Beauty

ON A tree-shaded, stone-flecked hillside above the winding Point O'Woods Road in Darien, Connecticut, is this home that points a way of construction to home-builders all over the United States. For it's built of stone, yet done inexpensively.

All From the Same Plan

WHAT four Better Homes & Gardens families accomplished with a single plan illustrates on one hand just how elastic to the varying needs of different families and different territorial demands a Bildcost home can be without essential changes, and on the other hand, what attractively individual results are possible with very slight variation in execution.

AUGUST Indoor Gardening Guide

FOR a cool and interesting change from the hot-hued flowers of August, why not arrange vegetables? It's fun. Try it and see.

AUGUST Outdoor Gardening Guide

THE most delightful garden occupation I can think of for a hot August afternoon is taking a long nap under the shade of a friendly tree. Many plants, too, take this month in which to rest. In such condition they lend themselves to severe operations, such as dividing and transplanting, without anesthetic. Lilies, narcissus, bleedingheart, evergreens, lawns, and construction are a few of the many items to which an August gardener may turn when he can pry himself away from that inviting shade tree.

Dismal INTO Livable ROOM

THERE we stood, very newly-wed, in the dismal living-room of the fifteenth dismal apartment we'd looked at that day.

Surgery Saved Their Homes

THERE'S no longer any doubt that remodeling can bring new life to many an outdated old house. Everybody knows it. What everybody doesn't know is that amazing improvement can be made without rebuilding the whole structure.

We Parents

Has it taken hounding and pounding this summer to get your youngsters to practice their music and to take their lessons seriously?

We Eat Out

MAYBE it sounded like a bargain. Or we may have extraordinary imagination and creative ability. Some people may even say we were just plain lucky.

Pickle Your Roses

HAVE you ever strolled into a rose garden early on a summer morning, inhaled deeply of its exquisite perfume, and fervently wished you could enjoy such fragrance the year around? Well, you can-- by making a rose-petal jar or "sweet pot."

The Man Next Door

Well, I'm a little alarmed about our youngsters. They seem so much more willing to help around the garden than I was as a boy. Maybe they'll get over it as they approach the ten-year mark.

Walnut--From Brunette to Blonde

"Candid, Is It?

TO ME a camera has always been a pleasant accessory to a family picnic or a vacation trip-- like the bean-bag you take along for games you're too lazy to play, or the umbrella you pack in case of rain, but seldom need.

Kandid-Kamera Kidder

DETROIT'S best kidder of candid camera-ites was Grace V. Sharritt. She WAS-- until both the candid bug and the candid camera got her. To see what the bug did to her you'll have to start on page 58. But to see how a candid camera caught her, look above.

DAD'S Practical Pointers

A Garden Pantry

Drugged Flowers Double Size

Wheeee!

IF YOU find it not always convenient to drop homemaking routine and trek yourself and the youngsters down to the beach, you may discover a bit of welcome relief from summer heat in a back-yard shower such as this.

Along the Garden Path

THE HARDEST PART of the work of spraying is carrying my heavy tank. I built this cart to hold a regular 6-gallon spraver. With a 5-foot hose and a long brass tube I can do a thoro job in reaching the underside of the leaves.