February 1956

1956 Home Improvement Contest

THIS CONTEST covers any improvement to your home and surrounding property. There are four divisions-- Exteriors, Interiors, Additions, and Kitchen-Utility areas--explained in detail further on. You are officially entered in the contest when we receive a Preliminary Entry Form from you. Besides one printed below and elsewhere in this issue, there'll be others in following issues of Better Homes & Gardens, as well as at retail stores and financial institutions cooperating as contest headquarters.

Here's an idea!

How "AVERAGE" are you?

They're slightly over 30 years old. He stands 5 feet, 8½ inches tall. He's 4¼ inches taller than his wife. The rest of this family totals, oddly enough, 1.5 persons.

Latest Garden News

Warmer weather and new chemicals are working together to give gardeners a greater choice of plants. Many of our finer ornamentals are limited in their usefulness because they won't take cold weather.

Do you know how to stay alive?

During the next 12 months, several thousand Americans will commit involuntary suicide. Their methods of self-destruction will include every variety of extinction known to the morgue-keeper's blotter.

You can be happier than yon are!

Marriage was meant to be enjoyed. Yet the carefree side of marriage is often one of the first fond dreams to go by the board. Marriage, it seems, means offspring and a place to rear them, music lessons, braces on teeth, a mortgage to pay, a lawn to rake, and the time and money to manage it. In the ensuing blizzard of responsibilities, men and women can lose sight of each other as enjoyable companions.

YOU and your ability to learn

Garden along the Gulf

SPRING never lasts too long. Nor does the inner thrill we get when all the outside world is new again. Down along the Gulf, spring comes early. Redbuds will put a purple haze in Houston's sky. Small daffodils bright as buttercups and violets and Johnnies are popping out everywhere.

More room from space you already have

The land that does away with time

They rescued the home they wanted

You get so much from roses!

A house planned to save you money

Your first look at Five Star Home No. 2602 tells you it is a simple house-- yet handsome and complete, inside and outside. Over-all dimensions of 55x28 would fit nicely on most city-size lots. And the 1,540 square feet it encloses keeps cost in a moderate bracket.

Small rooms can live big

Drāno

Try a new TV furniture arrangement

Ground school for student drivers

Dry-run flying-- a technique long used by pilots learning to take off and land on instruments-- has switched from flight school to high school with a new "classroom car" designed especially for student automobile drivers. Its name: Drivotrainer.

Put that small room to work

When your baby starts to talk

It's a delight to his family when the baby speaks his first intelligible word. And it should be. It is evidence of his intellect, his memory, and his attentiveness.

Personal help in home building, remodeling, and decorating

When you're looking for ways to make your home more comfortable and attractive, look for this seal. It identifies the Better Homes & Gardens Home Planning Center, where you can get personal counsel on your home-planning problems.

Flush-tank repairs you can make

Reach with these

"What I'd teach my children about ALCOHOL"

My two little boys know all about the birds and the bees. They know that the stork didn't bring them, and that it takes nine months, give or take a few days, to produce a baby.

How to close up a door or window

A hundred years old and look!

Traditional charm for small rooms

How to teach four difficult commands

The diary of a Plain dirt gardener

Feb. 1 I don't believe it, said I to myself as I shuffled down to rouse up the jolly old furnace. It just can't be February yet. The almanac and the morning paper must be wrong.

Good ideas for fence builders

For privacy, for keeping out wind, for keeping out children and dogs, or for separating areas, a fence is a fine solution. The right fence can go a long way toward improving the looks of your home, but it must be the right fence.

Now's the time to. . .

In the Lower South, feed roses, shrubs, and trees including citrus and pecans with a complete plant food. Keep a spray containing nabam or zineb on your shelf to control azalea petal blight. Spray every three or four days during bloom period.

Hedges make a lot more livable

When you plant a rose . . .

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

A high-school coach spoke at our church's Men's Club this week. "Some people refuse to go to church," he said, "because they say, they're better than a lot of folks who do. Maybe they are. But a star basketball player can do a lot more for the game if he's on the team."