Better Homes & Gardens

About Better Homes & Gardens

Better Homes & Gardens is an American home and lifestyle magazine published 12 times a year from Des Moines, Iowa, and one of the most widely circulated magazines in the United States. Founded in 1922 by Edwin Meredith — who had served as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture under Woodrow Wilson — as Fruit, Garden and Home, it was renamed Better Homes and Gardens with the August 1924 issue and grew into a defining publication of 20th-century American domestic life. Published today by People Inc., it covers homes, cooking, gardening, crafts, decorating, healthy living, and entertaining, and its red-plaid cookbook, first published in 1930, is one of the best-selling cookbooks in American history.

Founding

Better Homes & Gardens was founded in 1922 by Edwin Thomas Meredith, who had previously founded Successful Farming magazine in 1902 and served as Secretary of Agriculture under President Woodrow Wilson. Meredith wanted a product that door-to-door magazine salesmen could offer to the women who answered the door — a home and family service publication to complement his farm title. The original title was Fruit, Garden and Home. The first editor was Chesla C. Sherlock, whose contributions included an article series on "Homes of Famous Americans," later published as a series of books. Beginning with the August 1924 issue, the magazine was retitled Better Homes and Gardens; the first issue under the new name cost a dime on the newsstand.

Early growth

Under Sherlock's editorship, the magazine made the transition from a farmer's magazine to a lifestyle magazine, broadening its coverage from garden and orchard to the whole of home life: decorating, cooking, entertaining, and family. The magazine's practical, service-driven approach — tested recipes, doable projects, and advice aimed at real households rather than the wealthy — found a mass audience during the interwar years. In 1930, the company published the first edition of the Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book, the famous red-plaid volume that would become a fixture in American kitchens for generations.

The magazine became one of the "Seven Sisters," the group of women's service magazines that dominated American newsstands for much of the 20th century. Its formula — beautiful but achievable homes, reliable recipes, and garden know-how — proved extraordinarily durable through the Depression, the war years, and the postwar suburban boom.

Meredith Corporation

The magazine's publisher, Meredith Corporation, was founded by Edwin Meredith in 1902 with Successful Farming and grew into one of America's great media companies, based in Des Moines, Iowa. Meredith went public in 1946, was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1965, and expanded into broadcasting, books, and additional magazines including WOOD, Midwest Living, and MORE. In December 2021, Meredith was acquired by IAC and merged with Dotdash to form Dotdash Meredith, with broadcast assets going to Gray Television; the publishing business is now known as People Inc. Better Homes & Gardens has been published continuously through every corporate chapter, one of the longest-running magazines in America. The magazine's editor-in-chief as of 2025 is Carrie Boyd, leading the title from its historic Des Moines headquarters, and the brand's editorial leadership across its century has stewarded it through the transformation from a farm-family service paper to a modern multi-platform lifestyle brand, maintaining the practical, optimistic voice that Edwin Meredith established in 1922.

Editorial approach

Better Homes & Gardens focuses on interests regarding homes, cooking, gardening, crafts, healthy living, decorating, and entertaining, always with an emphasis on practicality: projects readers can actually complete, recipes they can actually cook, and gardens they can actually grow. Its test kitchens and test gardens in Des Moines have long been the engine of the brand's authority, producing rigorously tested recipes and trial-grown plant recommendations. The magazine's visual style — bright, abundant, and optimistic — has made it the archetype of the American shelter-and-service magazine.

The cookbook

The Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book, first published in 1930, is among the most successful cookbooks ever published in the United States, with tens of millions of copies sold across its many editions. The red-plaid ring-binder edition became a wedding-gift staple and a first-kitchen essential, teaching generations of Americans to cook with its tabbed chapters, step-by-step instructions, and the famous three-ring format that lay flat on the counter. The cookbook's longevity mirrors the magazine's: both are institutions of practical American domesticity.

Brand extensions

The Better Homes and Gardens brand has extended far beyond the magazine. In 1978, Meredith launched the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate service, which it owned and operated for 20 years before selling the business in 1998 while retaining the brand name; in 2007, Realogy Corporation licensed the brand for a franchise system that launched on July 1, 2008. In 2007, Meredith announced an agreement with Walmart for a line of Better Homes and Gardens home products, bringing the brand's design sensibility to mass retail. The brand has also produced special-interest publications, books, and digital products, and an Australian edition is published by Are Media.

Centennial

In 2022, Better Homes & Gardens celebrated 100 years as one of the longest continuously published magazines in America. The milestone was commemorated with a special September double issue featuring a refreshed editorial design and logo, an elevated print product with a larger trim size and upgraded paper stock, and four collectible covers featuring cake recipes from culinary icons Ina Garten, Carla Hall, Padma Lakshmi, and Jacques Pépin. Editor-in-chief Stephen Orr noted that since the very first issue in 1922, the brand had helped its audience make their homes and lives better, remaining true to its original mission of "inspiring better living." The centennial year also saw new brand initiatives including a podcast and expanded digital and social programming.

Audience and circulation

Better Homes & Gardens is, as of 2025, the sixth most widely circulated magazine in the United States, with total circulation reported at 7,624,910 in 2015 and a monthly audience of more than 43 million across print, digital, and social platforms at its centennial. Its readership of nearly 40 million has made it one of the great mass-reach advertising vehicles in American publishing. The magazine is published 12 times per year and remains headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, where it has been based since its founding.

Digital presence

Bhg.com is the brand's digital home, publishing recipes, decorating ideas, garden guides, and organizing content to a large online audience, supported by newsletters, social media channels with millions of followers, and the brand's podcast. The digital operation extends the magazine's service journalism — searchable recipes, project tutorials, and plant databases — to readers planning their homes and gardens in real time, and the brand's licensing partnerships keep it present in retail far beyond the newsstand.

Legacy and outlook

Few publications have shaped American home life as profoundly as Better Homes & Gardens. Its recipes taught the country to cook, its garden pages taught it to plant, and its decorating features defined the look of the American home across a century of changing taste. As it enters its second century under People Inc., the brand's challenge is to carry the mission of "inspiring better living" to new generations of homeowners and renters discovering it through search, social video, and streaming — the same practical promise, in new forms, that a dime bought on the newsstand in 1924.