Can you return the fixture? For one thing the fixture is designed to aim the light out to the side so it would look strange if you turned the reflectors inward to aim at the plant if they are even adjustable. A single reflector fixture would probably look better. And as someone else said they are painted black which will absorb a lot of the light. Plus $26 plus any shipping seems kind of expensive to me. In fact looking at most online light bulb and fixture sellers their prices tend to be on the high side, especially if you have to include shipping.

Per EPA all chemicals put on cotton must be biodegradagle in at a month. I am going to make lots of it, live just miles from several cotton gins, to make compost for the planting of shrubs for wind/dust breaks. For veggies will use in bales. It is just the two of us old people and food production is done with the awareness of if it is cheaper to buy product from local stores or use the well water which comes out of the hose in chunks and high in salts. Good luck with you endevers

Donna, I think if it were me I would probably try and ignore whose nesting where for a week or two. Chickadee nest or not, if the blues want a specific nestbox they will take it. Once you're fairly certain the chickadees have claimed a box, you can put a 1 and 1/8" hole reducer over the entrance hole to make the nestbox bluebird proof. Chickadees can be even more stealthy than bluebirds when it comes to being seen. Be careful removing what you think might be an abandoned nest because chickadees also hide their eggs when they leave their nest. I know it's hard to wait--we want to help things along--but it will work out and patience is the key. Good luck. Kathy

Great thread. I've made many mistakes over the years. When I needed drapes for 5 very tall and wide windows, I thought I would save money by making them myself. I ended up buying 30+ yards of a synthetic moire on sale at a chain fabric store, along with drapery lining, and after making up one panel, found that even with lining, the light coming through the fabric made the color brighter and kind of gaudy. The bolt is still in an upstairs closet, and I found 96" crushed voile panels online that I like very much for about $20 each. Lesson: keep it simple. A couple of years ago, I hired a local designer mainly to help me choose paint colors and advise on accessories/tweaking. In the master bedroom, I had some custom green silk drapes that I never liked that much, and she talked me into spending the money to have them interlined and a printed fabric border added, along with custom shams with the same fabric. I had already spent $2000 on the drapes, and now I spent another $1000, and I still didn't like them. I took them down, and they and the matching euro shams are in the closet in the guest room. I put up natural linen-look semi sheers from target, and I like them better. Lesson: keep it simple, and don't throw good money after bad. We weren't using our formal dining room much, and the same designer suggested moving the dining furniture into one end of our large living room, and making the old dining room into a den and the old den into a home office, which was really needed. Since I wanted to replace the old LR sofa anyway, I moved the den furniture into the living room and had a custom ($$$)sofa made for the new den. It was not a huge space, and we tried to keep the sofa scaled down. When it arrived, the fabric was gorgeous, the style just what I wanted, but the seat depth was so shallow that it was not very comfortable. I had also slipcovered the old den chairs to go with the new sofa ($$). I ended up moving the new sofa to the living room, where it was more appropriate for perching ladies than lounging TV viewers, and now none of the colors I had chosen (with help paid for by the hour) for the LR and new den would work. Plus, the newly slipcovered den chairs (on swivel rocker bases, I love them) don't work that well with the old sofa color. Fortunately, I hadn't painted yet. Lessons: Don't buy furniture without sitting on it. Choose paint colors after you are certain of your fabrics. Don't let your designer talk you into stuff you don't really need. Keep your major pieces fairly neutral. The worst was the master bath update. I had chosen tile for the walls and floor, and the tile vendor gave me a couple of names for the installation. The guy with the higher quote was very highly recommended but I went with the other guy because he said he could also do some other work I needed done. Even though I had a gut feeling I was making a mistake. He did a horrible job on the tile, broke my toilet, and disappeared. I had to buy more wall tile and pay another contractor to replace it, and I'm still stuck with a bad job on the floor. Between the cost of doing the job, redoing the job, and buying a new toilet, I could have had the better contractor do the job, and replaced the vanity and sink as well, and upgraded to a better tile. Lessons: A jack of all trades might be a master of none. Go with your gut. Ask contractors for their license numbers and CHECK IT online with your state to see if it's in effect. I've made more, but these are the recent highlights, LOL. I feel better having confessed them here.