If you can find for sale in your area, a good sandy loam topsoil, which is not on the too sandy scale, That should mix well with the topsoil dug out of your previous project. I did the same thing with a friend when their Maple broke off in a storm, and after they wenched out the stump. The native soil there is clay, and we planted a a 20 gallon potted, 3 trunked 'Tuscarora' crape myrtle in the middle, four White New Dawn roses around the tree which are pruned and wrapped to encircle the trunks. Then we planted a hedge of Dwarf yaupon 'nana' around the roses with hostas at their base. That was three years ago, and it has surprised me to discover that friend has not encountered any drainage problems. Everything planted in the new bed has abundantly thrived. Maybe the lack of drainage problems is due to the voids left in the soil when the Maple tree's remaining roots decayed. Anyway, We used a full cubic yard of the best quality sandy loam topsoil we could find. First though we mixed gysumn into the clay around the hole. and then we layered the Sandy loam and more native soil into the hole. Near the top, we ran out of native soil so finished of the mounded bed with the sandy loam. The bed is watered with a soaking hose which circles around the tree and beneath the roses. Neighbors often praise the way the landscaping in that bed appears, compared to when the Maple tree grew there with hostas beneath it.

I grow a couple of different kinds of plums and they all should be sprayed (sometimes I do, sometimes I don't). They are easy trees to grow but hard to get good fruit from. This area has a lot of plum eating bugs. If the branches are wimpy you should thin the fruit so that it doesn't break the branch and damage the tree. A lot of the time the buggy fruit will end up falling off on its own and you don't have to do much work. Birds and squirrels will also eat the fruit - often before it is ripe.

Actually, my dad grafted on, either a different plum tree branch or one from the same tree, and it did grow and produce little fruit. I actually, pruned this branch off the other day. The prune tree is over-shadowing a lemon tree we have and since the lemon tree actually produces fruit we use, I thought it was best to just prune the plum tree back. I still want to prune it back some more, and if possible, somehow get a pollinator companion tree to go along with it. The problem is, there's no space.

We really do need to see photos to determine what is going on, otherwise we are just guessing and you then may be following advice that is not appropriate or could even prove harmful. FWIW, horticultural oil is NOT a suggested treatment for borers.......if that is what you have. Because the larvae tunnels (bores) into the wood of the tree, any sort of topical approach has to be carefully considered and timed to have any effect. The bugs are not inside the bark....they are inside the tree and it often requires a systemic (seldom recommended for edibles) to ensure effective control. And the appearance of sap - aka gummosis - can arise from a multitude of conditions, not all of them serious or requiring treatment. Photos, please!!