Ailing evergreen

[drchelo]

About eight years ago, I bought a smallish evergreen to use as a "living" Christmas tree - it is a pretty juniper, with the lighter green-grey foliage and blue juniper berries. I planted it in the yard after that Christmas Holiday, and it seemed to thrive for several seasons. About four years ago, when we had a terribly icy winter that followed a terrifically dry summer, half of the little juniper died. By this time, it had developed a double strunk, starting about 24" above the ground. It was the north-facing half that died. I cut the dead part out, and cleared the area around the trunk and mulched and composted and slow-watered over the spring and summer the following year, and the little tree did very well.
I have continued to soak the tree when we don't get any rain for weeks on end (weather like we had earlier this Spring) and I have kept it mulched with compost and shredded bark. Now the very top of the tree has turned brown and has died. I am going to cut the dead part off this weekend, but I need some advice as to how to maintain this pretty little (well, maybe not so little now) juniper..
Thanks!
drc

[The Ent]

Any chance you know the specific variety of Juniper? Some of them are okay around here, others are attatcked by virtually every pest or disease known to plantdom and won't grow well more than a few years.

Offhand, I'd check the planting depth- you know we've been seeing issues where trees were planted with the root flare buried and the rootball too deep. The problems often don't show up till years later. Also, hitting it with the sick tree treatment (you're on the right track with the compost) will likely help, unless it's just a bad tree for this area.