Hi Amelie, You should be able to grow some corn in a 2'X8' bed. If you really only want the corn for corn on the cob, then you should probably go with the sweet corn. I did read that Bloody Butcher can be used like a sweet corn when very young, and I'd probably do it and like it fine. But I doubt that it would be as sweet as what your hubby is accustomed to. This kind of corn would probably be best for corn meal or grits. I looked in my Seed Savers Exchange yearbook and did find two people who claim that it is usable for corn on the cob. You could plant mainly sweet corn and just two "hills" of Bloody Butcher, if you want to try it. By "hill" I mean 3 to 4 seeds in a group and I'd recommend that you place the two hills about 24" apart. That should give you adequate pollination to see what this corn can do. I read that Bloody Butcher matures dry seed in 110 to 120 days. If you plant it simultaneously with an early sweet corn they shouldn't cross pollinate. You can then enjoy your sweet corn and still get some Bloody Butcher to try. Plant the taller variety on the North side of the bed, if the bed mainly runs East & West. This will avoid shading the shorter variety. Once you've grown them once, you'll be able to see in your mind's eye, how they will grow in the future, and you'll be able to plan more easily. Remember to give enough room to the tomatoes so that they are not shaded and so you can get in there to pick them. George Tahlequah, OK

Thanks for the topic link. My grow box is rather small (4x4 only using half atm) I thought about doing florescent tubes when building it but decided to try LEDS b/c the longer life and I had the heatsinks laying around. ATM I have: 50w warm white on a quad core heatsink *78-90F with fan on *no lens *Fan wire come loses once it probably hit 140-150f couldn't touch it 40w red/blue PCB with lens in a box with a fan *gift from a mate something about red/blue light does better *Temps hard to get but probably low with the 120mm fan going 30w cool white on a old P4 heatisnk *78-85 with fan on *no lens 23w CFL with reflexer *going replace with a 30-50w led once I get a hold of another CPU heatsink all placed in a diamond shape (2 foot wide 1.5 foot long) 8-12 inches above the plants. The new 20w would go in the center were the light is weakest. Trying to grow a dwarf tomatoes and peppers they seem to be doing fine ATM just some of the tomatoes leafs started to curly (near the middle) so I think the 20watter would help. The goal is 2xdwaft tomatoes, 2x peppers, and maybe some herbs on the side. This post was edited by Newguy27 on Sat, Feb 22, 14 at 21:03

I would suggest adding Gypsy peppers for the sweet. I will not go without planting them. This will be year 3 I plant them in my garden. They handle the heat better than the bells do for me. They out produced bell by a rate of 10 to 1 both years I planted them. They stay pretty compact for the most part. I had one that grew tall that I tied to the side of a tomato cage. (Note I buy the transplants from Bonnie. Every one of them gave me my $3.58 worth, and then some.) I only do seeds for the ones I can not get transplants for to save space in my germinating area. For a mild hot MexiBell did great for me last year. It was highly productive. Some fruits were a bit small in the worst of the heat of summer. Unlike the sweet bell they ripened well with the still glossy skin, and nice crunch when biting into them. When the heat stunted them they were a bit bigger than golf balls. When the heat broke they got up to tennis ball size. (Another from Bonnie.) The only sweet I am planting from seed this year is California Wonder. It did ok for the start of the season. Once the heat wave broke it gave me 14 nice sized bell peppers that were so tasty. They were great stuffed with rice, ground pork, bacon crumbles, and cheese.

A pale, modern white oak (with MUCH MORE yellow than you are showing) will look STUNNING with blue lowers and white uppers. The ISSUE is the dark hardwood. As soon as you put the beautiful, pale, buttery yellow updated wood up against the '90's dark' wood flooring you will signal you could not finish the project. The 250 - 350 sf of the dark, dated wood floor isn't enough to save (assuming it is the ONLY room the dark wood is in). If you remove it and replace it, it will cost (roughly) $3500. Now compare that to the price of the ENTIRE refresh. I'm guessing it is a small amount compared to the rest of the renovation. I would prefer to see more colour (more yellow) in the wood flooring. You have dark/gray rooms. The pale wood you show has TOO MUCH blue in it. All of your options will look washed out and look like 'death warmed over' in your rooms. A pretty, soft gold wood tone looks AMAZING with blue cabinets. Remember: a yellow based floor can ADD 'sunlight' to a room. The soft yellows can throw some warm light INTO a space in the same way sunlight can. It comes from the floor not the sky. That's the only difference. Be aware that the colours you are choosing are 'like for like' with the floors you already have. With your colour updates, that is a dangerous thing to do. I know you want to try to keep the dark wood, but it isn't worth it. A large dark area rug (imagine indigo blue!!!) will do the same thing as the dark floors are doing right now.