You're in Texas like me. We've had a terrible drought for these past few months. I suspect your Red Oak is showing signs of needing water. Remember larger trees typically suffer transplant shock for years after planting, meaning they can't get enough water from their reduced roots to their leaves. It also can be a combination of factors: different soil consistency/quality than in other parts in your yard, different sunlight than in other parts in your yard, different planting depth or location on the grade, etc. Each tree's environment is unique. And remember that as many as 80% of trees planted in yards, even by builders, will never make it to maturity. And there's only so much even an expert gardener can do. Any single, simple answer (like "improper planting") probably isn't going to help much. My advice would be to plant 4 more Oak saplings when this one bites the dust, and hopefully 1 will survive to maturity. Good luck.

My climate is like yours, and what grows easily is different from what you have to baby and coddle. All of the thymes, especially Syrian, is, when dried and crushed, mixed with sesame and ground sumac, to make a quintessential Mid East condiment which we call Za'atar, very popular in the States (google it, you'll be surprised). Medicinals and salves is an excellent idea. Cleavers make a fabulous salve and grows almost too well here. Also the idea to supply restaurants for perfect garnishes. Tea mixes, fresh or dried, from mint, lemon verbena. Sachets with lavender; it takes a few seasons to get to the flowering stage and you'd need a bunch of plants, but it is a great seller in nearly any form. Bay laurel, rosemary and wormwood - an excellent medicinal - should prove easy for you. Meaning that these herbs don't take the intense care that your veggies, do, only the time it takes to get them established - your climate is perfect for these - and the quality of your harvest for selling needs to be higher than for home use like me. Have you thought of growing ginger? The salves are not hard to master, although I'm just a beginner at them myself, but there is a lot of expertise on the GW forums. Let us know!!

Thank you all for the Kudos. I'm proud to say I didn't have a meltdown after the party since everything turned out fine. Honestly if my hubby hadn't been so calm I probaly would have had a good l-o-n-g meltdown but he was the voice of reason. As for the Town Administrator, I have invited he and his wife for dinner this weekend; it's the least I can do! My children had a blast, igot to see my family from far and wide and everyone enjoyed the food so all is well in my sleepy little town. Here are a couple of pictures we took while setting up:

As a mother of a child with his own issues, let me just send you a mental hug...and share a glass of wine (you do drink don't you? That helps...does he? LOL KIDDING). Anyhoo, what I really want to share with you is some advice that a doctor gave us when our son was about 2. Hospital kids do nothing but watch TV because there isn't much to do. I used to limit it substantially at home because of that. Turns out, from the therapist at the hospital, maybe I wasn't doing a service to my child in doing so. In a stressful situation, watching "tv" or movies or whatever becomes their escape to sanity. I don't know what his life was like previously but I'm assuming since he's with you it wasn't good. My son's life is wonderful, but he still used to get highly stressed at changes in his life. As she said, he literally would center himself while watching the back yardagains. In the hospital situation this came up in he was having some very intensive therapy and had taken to banging his head, which he NEVER did. At her suggestion, when he got stressed we watched a show together and it was amazing the difference that made. From that point on whenever we finished a therapy we would go back and watch something together. He still watches more tv than most, but I know what it is and I allow it when I allow it (no tv in the rooms etc in my house). But he still centers his little world often when he's being pushed too hard by sitting in his little "fort" under the stairs and watching a favorite show. You have to understand that allowing this for a child who needs it is not "plopping them on the couch". Think about his life...that time on the couch might be the only happy time he had...his escape. So to take that escape away adds to his pressures. Then you rip the house apart and that stresses him even more...yet he still can't have his escape. You see where I'm going? As the therapist told me...what we had planned as "ideal" parents was just a fantasy. My child wasn't going to watch cartoons...he was going to play outside or play games or read....And letting go of that fantasy was hard but as a good parent, when I did so I realized what I was keeping him from...his moments of sanity. You can't entertain him 24/7. It's not good for him because one day he'll be on his own and won't know how to entertain himself :) If a little tv time helps...and you monitor what he's watching carefully you aren't hurting him...you might actually be giving him a great deal of help coping with what's happening in his life.