Question
Good morning.  I live outside of Austin Texas and have noticed this spring that my oak trees in the backyard are not hardly any new leaves.  We have about 8 of them and they are all having trouble.  The one in the front yard looks great.  So does our neighbors.  What do I do next?  I did notice ants crawling on one of the trees. And we had for our area major freezes this year even in April.  
Thank you
LuAnn

Answer
This has been the top question this spring. Hardwoods have been set back by the late freeze and the new leaves were killed by the frost. But have no fear the tree will re leaf. The foliage may not be as thick as last year since the tree is expending the stored energy in its roots and had to bud out twice. There may even by a slight dieback of a few limbs but the trees should be ok. There is not really anything that can be done except wait and see. If weather has a period of dry without rains I would water them but I would not fertilize them this year but would add fertilizer this next fall to promote root growth. The ants I do not think have anythign to do with the foliage not budding out.