A Rough Start for the Red Maple

It was a little over a week ago we happily planted a new tree on the west side of the house. Last fall we cut down an old half-dead birch tree, and we've wanted to fill the space with something new (and not so dangerously close to the foundation!). Thanks to my Dad for his help and discount from Bachman's, we got a new Red Maple.

We found the soil to be somewhat clay as we dug the hole. Before dropping the tree in, we added water to the hole, but it didn't soak in very fast due to the dense clay-like soil. A few days later our leaves were wilting & curling, and looking pretty sad in general. We think it's a combination of over-watering and the shock of transplanting the tree.

As a last ditch effort, I picked up 10 bags of better topsoil dirt to put around the tree. I dug up the tree, still wet under the roots, and made the hole bigger and deeper for the new dirt. Our new Maple is now surrounded by 400 pounds of better dirt that should hopefully soak up water easier and help the tree. We may end up with a dead tree, but we'll let it go until next summer and see if it improves.