getting to the root of things

in an email to ellen i said i thought poor drainage was the cause of the cherry tree's misery...she did some research and said based on the appearance of the leaves it could be a phytophthora fungal infection and that exposing the crown and main root might help stop the infection...ellen's smart and two heads are better than one, so i went to the garden this morning and exposed the root down to the top of the root ball...while i was at it i took a ph reading to see if there was a soil issue going on...nope...the reading was 6.5 which is in the optimum range for cherry trees...i did find a number of retiring beetles while i was in there and i captured one so i can give it to someone who knows more about insects than i do to find out if that could be a problem as well...i will be visiting the garden a bit more often in the near future to see if this is having a positive impact on the tree...i certainly hope it will...if anyone has any ideas or can identify that beetle feel free to chime in here...personally i will take all the help i can get._____it's 8:18 pm now and the beetle has been identified as an asiatic garden beetle...an invasive pest that likes to eat leaves after dark...but nothing like the threat japanese beetles would pose to the tree...the geraniums are as likely a target.