File:American homes and gardens (1908) (17532247824).jpg

Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesgar51908newy (find matches)
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic; Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Munn and Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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May, 1908 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS Xlll already many bright perennials, but in the vegetable garden the color clashes are easier to avoid, and if they can not be entirely pre- vented it will not matter so much there. We are asked if it is worth while to collect plants in the woods for use in the wild gar- den. Decidedly it is. Many of the plants found in profusion in the woods are not to be had in the nurseries, and if one can not collect them one must buy from men who make it a business to collect wild plants. It is also, of course, much cheaper to collect them for one's self. Spring blooming plants should be trans- planted soon after flowering, because many of them loose their leaves early in the summer and are then very hard to find. If you walk constantly in the woods it will not be hard to keep track of things and to collect them when the leaves are turning yel- low, which is the best time. If you wait too long you will look in vain for dog-tooth vio- lets. Carry a basket and a trowel on your walks or drives and dig things as you come across them. Get all the roots of the plants; place them in the basket between layers of damp moss or leaves, and if you come to a brook dip basket and all in the water for an instant. As soon as you reach home set them out, water, and shade for a few days if nec- essary, and they will seldom die. I have often dug up a plant with a pocket- knife or with my fingers and carried it home wrapped in a handkerchief in my pocket with- out harm. The trilliums, Solomon's seal, Jack-in-the- pulpit, houstonia (bluets), anemone, blood- root, erythronium, all the violets, moss pink, silene, etc., are very easy to transplant and to establish. The lady-slippers are harder to manage. Their roots are long and thick, and they are very particular about soil, which must be peaty and cool. Trailing arbutus is almost impossible to transplant, or rather it is impossible to make it grow after transplanting. If one has a large place it will be a temptation to bring home a small hemlock or a pine, just for the sake of such an intimate connection with its life and welfare, and indeed one would like to preserve the memory of all one's walks in such a pleasant, tangible way.
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SECTIONAL Mission Bookcases and Filing Cabinets We are the makers of the exclusive CASE WITH THE RAISED=PANELED ENDS" Send for Catalogues No. 307—Bookcases No. 107—Filing Cabinets Vilas-Diven Co. 921 Lackawanna Ave. BLMIRA, N. Y. THE UTILITY OF THE BUNGALOW THERE are quite a number of ways in which a bungalow appeals to the house- keeper by reason of its utility. Its housekeeping excellencies are perhaps best summed up in its general convenience; "as convenient as a flat" is a ready way to explain its housekeeping advantages so it will be best appreciated by the city housekeeper, while those who have never kept house with the rooms all on a single floor will find in it a revelation of convenience and comfort. Every- thing is at one's hands; there is no going up and down stairs; there is an ease of access and an ease in housekeeping that appertains to no other style of dwelling. And this con- venience is something that is with one every day and all day, and its very great advantage is the supreme test of the bungalow's utility. Nor is its utility in simplicity to be ignored; in fact, in some senses this is its chief ad- vantage. The bungalow is a simply built house, intended to be simply furnished, and adapted to the simple life. The latter phrase has, indeed, been greatly overworked of late, By Elsie Leonard and perhaps does not really mean as much as its promoters would have us think. But one can not think of gorgeousness in a bunga- low nor of the luxurious life as it is now understood and interpreted. Hence its claims for simple living are not to be overlooked nor scorned as hinting at a passing jest. The structural simplicity of the bungalow is, however, one of its most notable character- istics. Few modern houses are to-day built without cost; the bungalow is not always the cheapest form of construction; but at least it never speaks its modest cost aloud, for it makes no pretense to be other than what it really is—a simple little house, built at as moderate a cost as may be, and used, if you please, and quite naturally, as the abode of persons of simple taste. This quality is well shown in the furnish- ings, which, in a bungalow, are naturally much more modest and much more simple than in a dwelling of greater cost. Here one may dispose one's purchases of inexpensive summer furniture without thought of criticism and without dread of unfavorable comment. There is a world of comfort in this, for many of us crave at times a quiet little house where there is freedom from the expensive equipment that often belongs to the more costly dwelling, and where sometimes we can not be as comfortable as we would, because we must be so very care- ful of our tables and chairs, our rugs, hang- ings, and other things the careful housekeeper often feels she must have whether absolutely necessary or not. The utility of the bungalow is, therefore, a matter of prime importance and of truly high significance. It is a dwelling of a type; not always definitely indicated, perhaps, but still typical and in a general sense universally char- acteristic. It is a form of house that has been so wrought out by our architects that it can be as readily adapted to the luscious climate of California as to the more trying climate of, let me say, Massachusetts. It is true enough we would not, in Massachusetts, or in any northern State, select this as the type of house to be chosen for all the year living; but it is

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