Aristotle was not Belgium.

Aristotle was not Belgian. The central message of Buddhism is not "Every man for himself." And the London Underground is not a political movement. Those are all mistakes, Otto. I looked them up.

Best line ever in my opinion. And a definite top 10 must see.

Excuse me while I wax rhapsodic for a moment. One thing about gardening that has really opened my eyes is how fretful it can be. I'm growing herbs and vegetables to see if I can. My backyard was a mess so I've had to do a lot of soil conditioning and spent more money than I care to admit so far on mostly dirt. My neighbor is also growing vegetables and when I look over the fence at his garden I see these HUGE leaves and tall plants and he tells me that he's got little tomatillos and the brussel sprouts are starting to flower and I fret because I wonder if my plants are growing at the right pace. My plants aren't small but they aren't HUGE either. But then I remind myself that what I'm growing has a different season than what he's growing and that yes, everything is right where they are suppose to be. I was telling hubby that with work, he's already thinking about July and August but I have to stay with day ahead. Harvest time won't begin until maybe June but definitely July. I can't put too much thought in how much corn I'll have in July, I have to make sure the stalks are where they are suppose to be now. Are they the right color? Are they the right height? Do I see any damage? It's definitely living in the here and now as oppose to planning for the future. But I'll say this, if I get even one produce I'll probably be on the verge of tears busting with pride because, "I.DID.THIS." as my kids are prone to say.

And then I think about farmers. Not commercial farmers but I guess you could say farmers who lived 100 years ago or even further back than that. I think about people who truly live(d) off the land and can empathize with them. If their crops don't grow, they don't eat, it's as simple as that. A common joke is to hear about the farmer who walks out on his porch and just stares out at the field. I often catch myself staring at my plants. Is there anything going wrong that I missed? Is there something else I need to do? There's always something that needs to be done, what is it?

This comes about because the leaves on my peanut plants started to fold towards each other like they are praying. When leaves do that, the cause might be because of magnesium deficiency. The thing is, I decided when I began this project to use Miracle-Gro soil. You don't have to feed the plants for at least 3 months and there are even warnings on the bags NOT to give your plants anything else because you might burn them. I also have not put any mulch on top of the beds because I read that you're really only suppose to mulch twice a year, once when it gets hot and once when it gets cold. You mulch to retain moisture. When I check my soil, it's at the exact moisture level that it's suppose to be: at a finger's touch it feels damp and some soil sticks to my finger.

So the leaves on my peanut plants have started to fold inward and I also noticed that the corn I planted the peanuts next to, the stalks look yellow-green as opposed to some other corn that look vibrant dark green. These are signs of magnesium deficiency. A google search later and I find that a simple fix is epson salt. 1 teaspoon of epson salt to a gallon of water. I take the plunge and mix up a gallon and pour some on the plants and spray some directly on the leaves hoping that I'm not killing them by giving them too much of one nutrient. This morning I wake up and yay! The peanuts leaves are wide open and the corn stalks don't look yellow green as much as they look almost neon green. I did it! I figured out what was wrong and I'm fixing it. And because I'm fixing it, I might have peanuts before I know it.

So it's good to be wrong about the fretting and it's nice to be able to look it up just to be sure. I can't imagine doing this without the internet at my fingertips.