For the pecans it has to be competition, I saw a paper maybe two months ago that showed that the root/aerial mass ratio depends strongly on the level of competition. For the walnut, it is juglone. I have a large one myself, and I have a friend who planted a small orchard within 80 ft of a BW (despite my repeated discouragement). So he planted every vigorous near (about 50-60 ft) the tree, and everything small (dwarf apples) as far away as possible. Now he has the dwarf trees which are the tallest in the orchard, and the first line of trees looks puny and I do know how it is going to end. My own BW has one root that has traveled a good 70 ft from the trunk. Who knows how far the finer roots go.

Sorry, don't know, but keep on trying! This is my first year of container gardening, too. I have about 20 pots in my yard. Right before the 100+ temperatures hit, I got up a 50% white shadecloth. It really works well! The plants that are shaded all day do very well, the ones that are in front are yellowing and suffering a bit. I think the sun weakens plants and lets the buggies really go to town. I just caught 4 tomato hornworms that ate 80% of my tomato plants :(. And my sunflowers are infested with some weird brown patches that are making the leaves limp.

Elle, stool softeners didn't help my mother much, either. I did give her cooked prunes with her breakfast. (I pureed them which might make them easier to be digested...) When I brought her home from the hospital, her dentures wouldn't stay in her mouth for a couple of months. I pureed a lot and even tried some baby food fruit. (yuck!!) BUT I found that baby food PLUMS (also has some pears and apples in if I remember correctly) helped her... Does she drink enough water? It's hard to get them to drink it, but so necessary and the best of liquids. I would make Mom soup with chicken and vegetables, strain it and give her the broth to drink. The chicken and vegetables could be prepared for a meal... Dulcolax suppositories were the ONLY ones that would work with my parents. Fleet enemas WITH mineral oil are easier on the body. I found whether my parents ate little or much, their bowels were STILL processing waste and needed to eliminate regularly. Dad had to take milk of magnesia DAILY. I kept a chart and monitored how much I gave him and how it affected him the next day. Sometimes 1T wasn't enough, and I'd give him 2T that day. If that made him too loose, I'd cut it back to 1 1/2T. At times I needed to give him 2 1/2T. He was good about taking it. Mom didn't like it, but would take it in desperate situations! :) It's tricky to get the right amt. Sometimes I had to go to 3 or 4T with them... I came upon Little Tummys' Laxative Drops for babies and would give that to Mother. That helped her BUT tasted terrible. I would put it in teaspoon of baked apples. When Mother started in Hospice, they gave her a stool softener that worked better than anything I had been able to purchase OTC. All I can remember is that they had SENNA in them which is also in the Little Tummys laxative drops. There may be something OTC available today in capsule form with SENNA for the bowels. Check with her dr. or pharmacist. I pray you can get a handle on this for her. It was a HUGE problem for my parents. (Mom was an invalid; Dad had pancreatic cancer...) Is she able to do some walking??? May God give you and her strength and wisdom. ~breezy

Is this stool small, hard, and constipated, or is it just getting stuck in the hair around her rear end? If it's actual constipation, you should try to find out what's causing it so that you can deal with the source of the problem, not just the result. What do you feed her? Canned or dry? Does she drink much water? Could she have ingested something (like a string or small toy) that is causing an obstruction? Since I am now caring for my third CRF cat, I am very tuned in to the fact that cats in renal failure are often chronically constipated. At 12 yrs old, it's certainly not uncommon for a cat to have some degree of renal insufficiency. You might consider having a full blood chemistry run on her to check organ function and see how her kidneys are doing. If this is a constipation issue, there are several remedies you can try. Mixing one tsp of canned pumpkin (NOT pie filling) into her food daily will help bulk up and soften her stool. Baby food peas will do the same thing. So will 1/8 tsp. of unflavored Metamucil. They are all sources of high fiber. Miralax is a very effective stool softener for cats and can be easily mixed into food or water. A low starting dose of 1/8 tsp once daily might do the trick, and it can be increased slightly if necessary to achieve the desired result. Constipation often goes hand in hand with dehydration, so if you are feeding her dry kibble, I strongly recommend you switch her to canned food. Better yet, mix some warm water into the canned food to make it a sloppy gruel that she can lap up. The more fluid running through her digestive tract, the more moist her stool will be. Laurie