Distinct additions to the kitchen garden are an herb bed, a few rhubarb plants, and an asparagus bed.  The latter, because it takes time to become established, seems difficult but laying out a proper bed is not so hard.  Also, in two to three years the plants will have reached the stage where the larger stalks may be cut for consumption.  At first this should be done judiciously in order not to kill the plants but after another year or two the bed will yield consistently.  After it is well established, it provides the first home-grown vegetables of spring and bears for about six weeks.  Afterwards all it requires is an occasional weeding and fall mulching with fertilizer and leaves.

As for the tools that keep gardens and grounds in condition, a special shed is advisable.  Don’t try to keep them in a tool house or section given over to saws, planes, chisels and bits.  They get in a hopeless jumble.  Nothing is more discouraging than to go out to what should be a tidy little spot to do a bit of mending or minor job of carpentry and find earth encrusted garden trowels, weeders, and such gear scattered all over the work bench.  The grit so adhering is fatal to sharp-edged tools, while sprays, dusting powders, and fertilizers give off fumes that rust them.

We would also add a few kind words for the various berries and small fruits.  Except for strawberries, which must be kept weeded and replanted periodically, berries are our ideal of easily cared for fruits.  Raspberries, for instance, never become really cheap in the market because of their perishable nature.  Yet with the very minimum of care, cutting out old canes after the bearing season is over and keeping weeds down with a mulch of hay, a comparatively small patch of red raspberries, within three years of planting, will produce all the fruit an average family can eat or be willing to pick.  The other variety, known as “black caps,” are no more trouble and equally prolific.  These are at their best in pie and, for the pleasures of a succession of fresh black raspberry pies each summer, we heartily recommend planting a dozen canes at the same time that the red raspberry patch is started.

Blackberry canes grow so rankly and bear such brutal thorns that the annual crop seems hardly worth the torn clothing and bad scratches that gathering them entails, especially as they are to be had at such reasonable prices in the average market.  Blueberries are another matter.  Three or four good bushes of the kind offered by most nurseries will keep the family in blueberry pie with little effort on the part of the person who gathers them.  Currants and gooseberries are easily grown but have one serious fault.  These bushes harbor plant pests that work havoc with evergreens and a number of the ornamental shrubs.  For that reason we long ago eradicated any growing on our place.