I planted my first 4 apple trees of the year tonight. These were the free replacements for the 4 Menards trees I bought last year that died. It was really interesting to see how much the upper level of the soil improved in one year. Since my soil is pretty sandy in some spots, I spent the summer hauling ATV trailer loads of grass clippings, leaves and small sticks from my yard and put them in and around my apple tree cages. In one year the soil went from sandy to having a solid 6" of dark black soil.