Homestead Hints Books: Learn How to Plan, Build, Landscape and Maintain Your Home and How to Grow Beautiful, Bountiful Gardens

"A wonderful array of old-time hints that are still practical" - Family Handyman Magazine

Homestead Hints Books: Learn How to Plan, Build, Landscape and Maintain Your Home and How to Grow Beautiful, Bountiful Gardens

Among the things we have lost along the way are those hints and tips swapped with neighbors over the back fence. These new books offer some of the best of those words of wisdom about gardening, landscaping, building and household care, taken from yesterday's most popular farm journals, home magazines, seed catalogs, and household guide books.

Edited by Donald J. Berg

"Old ideas brought back to life" - Better Homes and Gardens Magazine

New for 2010

The Practical Home Landscaper's Guide

Is your yard pretty enough to justify the time, toil and expense that you put into it? If not, here's your chance to learn from yesterday's practical home landscapers. This new book is packed with time-tested ideas on how to use native plants, local wildflowers, fruit trees, vegetables and herbs to improve your property.

Free Download

The Kitchen Garden Guide

How good is your vegetable garden? Can you depend on it to keep your table supplied year-round? If you lived a hundred years ago, you'd have a good kitchen garden or you'd go without.

Now, you can plan a new garden or improve an old one and enjoy a bountiful, dependable home-grown harvest while preparing for even better results next year. This new, free downloadable book, filled with techniques and advice from yesterday's best gardeners, will show you how.

New for 2010

Prosperity Plans

Has today's economy made you put off your dreams of a new home? This new book might get you dreaming again. It will show you how you can create a low-cost small home that can grow larger and more comfortable over time. You'll learn from a series of fascinating "Growing House" designs created in 1934. That was the time of the Great Depression when Americans faced economic horrors that make today's home builders' problems seem mild. If they could build for a better future, why can't we?

How to Build in the Country

Here's some planning and building advice that's as good today as it was more than a hundred years ago, when it was written.

In this revised and enlarged edition of his popular book, architect Donald Berg presents time-tested design ideas and building advice from the best of last century's architectural books, builders' guides, farm journals and garden magazines. This new book is arranged as a step-by-step guide for today's country home builder, and is illustrated with hundreds of beautiful old-time engravings.

"Delightful...the kernel of truth always emerges as applicable today as it was a hundred years ago" - Country Living Magazine

Also by Don Berg:

American Country Building Design Rediscovered plans for 19th-Century farmhouses, cottages, landscapes, barns, carriage houses and outbuildings with a look at the ideas behind the buildings.

Free Plans for Country Buildings:

Barns and Outbuildings These free building manuals and blueprints can help teach you how to construct your own small barn, tractor shed, barn-style garage, pole barn, horse barn or equipment shelter.

Country Homes, Cottages and Cabins These free blueprints and building lessons can help you build an economical, small, energy efficient home for your future. Select from over sixty small home designs to plan your retirement cottage, getaway cabin, guest house or rental unit.

Garages and Workshops These free online guidebooks, downloadable construction blueprints and project plans can help you create a great new garage, workshop or carport.

Solar, Green and Energy Efficient Home Plans
Create an efficient home that saves energy and takes advantage of free energy from the sun, the wind and the earth with these free building plans, project plans and guidebooks.

Backyard and Garden Projects Get great gazebo, arbor, pergola, deck, shed, greenhouse, playground, playhouse, dog house, birdhouse and outdoor furniture designs and building guides that you can use for free.