Poorly Acer

Hi all,

We've an Acer Tree in our garden, planted approx 2 years ago, it's been thriving until a couple of weeks ago. It lives in a 1m square cut out in the patio, it's not a massively deep hole, but we bought the tree on the advice on a garden designer as being something suitable for the spot. It's mostly in the shade, with some morning sun.

The leaves have looked increasingly shrivelled over the last couple of weeks, it seems to be affecting the whole tree evenly. Pictures attached.

I can't pinpoint a particularly cause, the tree is against our fence, next doors have a patio behind the fence. Next doors have been working on their grass over the last few weeks, but there is 2 or 3m of patio between the tree and the grass. I've watered the tree as normal, a combination of water and then sometimes occasional all purpose plant food, watering it as the soil looks dry (and as I remember), this has been the same since we got the tree. We do have a toddler, who has run cars over the top of the soil a few times, but we now seem to have stopped that. I don't think he's dug into the soil, or played with any force. We also have cats who will occasionally use the area as a toilet, again this is something we try to discourage, and nothing that is new.

I've been googling, and have been reading about leaf scorch. Does this look like what is going on here? And if so there's not a lot we can do for this year, but hope it will come back next year? Do I keep watering it in the meantime?

Anything else it could be?

Thanks for any help.

 

Acers are sensitive to cold winds and the start of May has been cold and windy. Don't know where you are in the country, but that would be my initial thought. Cold winds on young foliage. Should recover with time, maybe see growth by end of May with mild weather.