Natural Measurements Make Planting Easier

   Is anyone else confused as heck about measurements?  We have so many competing standards you can't throw a stone, without landing on a slug, or trip over a cubit.
    All measurement comes from the idea that you can tell someone an amount without having to show him/her.  Measurements range in difficulty from the natural and easy (finger, hand, cubit, ell, etc.) to medium (cm, m, km), to world class difficult (corn, inch, hand, yard, rod or chain, furlong, mile, league.)  The measuring system you use has a great deal to do with where and when you grew up and what you were taught. 
   But what does this have to do with gardening?  Well, one way or another, it is important to give your crops the appropriate amount of growing room and thin your carrots, for example, to 5 cm (2 in. or 3 fingers).  But unless you are really intense about perfect measurements, you probably aren't going to whip out the ruler. 
     Enter, natural measurements.  Everyone has natural measurements as part of our bodies.  It is not extremely important whether the carrots are 4.5 cm apart or 2 1/4 inches as long as they have room to grow.  I am an engineer, and I certainly do not use a ruler to plant seeds.  It's a garden, not a blueprint and a 1/4 inch or .5 cm will not cause my crop to fail.
    Most veggie seeds come with a few simple measurements for planting.  With a ruler and a few minutes you can change the row spacing, seed spacing and planting depth to natural measurements.  You'll save yourself considerable time and your plants will benefit from the attention to detail.