July 1940

ACROSS THE Editor's Desk

I HAVE been enjoying a parable from Nature that tells a story. The parable is the more interesting because it is based on one of the miracles of the universe. It is concerned with a curious creature, often no bigger than a pin's head, that lives below the surface of things and is seldom seen by the eye of man. This humblest of citizens in the commonwealth of creation has made more difference to the geography of this planet than all other animals put together, man included.

THE DIARY of a Plain Dirt Gardener

We're still out here in California. While Maggie and David are visiting at Fresno at the home of her sister and family, Donald and I are on a journey by ourselves and we came this evening to Capitola and the home of our good friend, Frank Reinelt, the delphinium hybridizer.

The Man Next Door

It is an appalling and unforgettable moment when a husband suddenly recognizes, in his beloved wife, some of the more formidable traits of his father-in-law which used to scare him to death when he was courting.

Wilmette's Remodeling Pays

ADDISON BROWN'S house might have come out of a murder mystery. When I first saw it I felt a little as if he must have intended to call in a cop, not an architect. Big, somber, stained a gloomy green and surrounded with oaks, it was just the place for screams in the night. It had the old porch for stealthy footsteps to cross and it had the back stairs for servant intrigues and midnight prowls.

Make Yours a Trouble-free Drive

WHEN Father bought our first car, he built the driveway past a tree, and Mother and the three of us boys used to sit at the breakfast table every morning listening to him back out. It was a tense moment. We'd sit and not eat a thing, just looking at each other and waiting. Usually the sputter of the motor faded into the street and we knew he'd made it.

Let's Have Our Picnic Right Here

IT'S AS EASY TO LANDSCAPE YOUR HOME RIGHT AS WRONG

JONES is a friend of mine, yes. I like him and wouldn't say anything against him. But I want to tell you about his home grounds.

A Better Home in Camp

IF YOU'RE one of those thousands of Americans who become dewy-eyed at sight of a weather-proofed tent or a portable gasoline stove, probably you'll agree with me that there's something about a camping vacation that satisfies the soul.

Shall We Build Outside the City Limits?

MANY a couple that contemplates building or buying a home gazes speculatively at the promised land of low taxes and open spaces outside the city limits.

Plank Siding Gives New Homes Smart Exteriors

THAT very first day in Pasadena when Neil Cameron and his wife sat down with Architect R. H. Ainsworth and told him they wanted a home, Cameron made one thing plain: "We don't want just another stereotyped small house. We want something fresh."

JULY Indoor Gardening Guide

JULY Outdoor Gardening Guide

IN JULY the delicately shaded blooms of June are gone, but instead of dainty shades we can have the bright orange of butterflyweed, the heavy yellow of rudbeckia, coreopsis, and gaillardia, and the large flowers of early dahlias.

HARBORING A VIEW

NEW ENGLAND holds no lovelier spot for me than the flowering harbor village of Southport, Connecticut. Above the pulse of a modern town-- if you'll be still a moment and listen-- come the faint clop-clop of horses' hoofs, the roll of carriage wheels, the rustle of silks along the shady streets of long ago.

Good Furnishings Taste, Budget Limited

IF YOU'VE money in the bank, a fat gift check, or an unlimited allowance, it's still a task, tho not too difficult, to furnish a home tastefully. But for any house on a budget or limited income-- well, there's only one way to do it. You must select everything that goes into the house with special care. To complete a home full of livability, comfort, durability, and charm with a conservative pocketful of shekels isn't impossible, and it can be fun.

We Parents

IT'S youngsters with nothing to do and all day in which to do it who drive us mothers berserk in the good old summertime. And usually it's nobody's fault but our own!

Remodeling? Money for Your Pictures

TERRACE TEMPTATIONS

PITY the poor living-room furniture that's dragged to porch or terrace these golden summer days, then jockeyed back out of danger of night dews and sudden showers! It's tough on the mover, ruinous to our nice indoor pieces.

Pickles, Summer Tables, and Chilled Desserts

Walls Colorful With Flower Prints

YOU weren't born with a "green thumb"? Don't let it worry you. If your delphiniums do a fizzle and your noble dahlias decline to live up to their pedigree, start a garden of flower prints blooming on your walls. No bugs, no watering, no seasons, no duds.

How to Water ...

A Low-Cost Home With a Million-Dollar Look

GEORGE MILLS is no snob. And yet he turns up his nose at minimum-cost homes, tho he knows in his heart that he oughtn't to put more than two to two and one-half times his annual income into a home.

Edgar Bergen, the Hobbyist

Along the Garden Path

WHEN HOT WEATHER overtakes lateplanted seed flats and they can no longer be kept under glass, move them outdoors to a child's wagon, where they can easily be wheeled in or out of the sun at will.-- Lulu Egan Quinlan, Okla.

The Marr House

Fascinating Flower Facts

IT'S NEWS TO ME!

All of us are excited over "The Flower Family Album," a new kind of flower-study book by Helen Field Fischer and her artist daughter, Gretchen Fischer Harshbarger. More than 450 absolutely accurate line drawings group the cultivated flowers with related wild flowers, all to the same scale so we can judge plant sizes.