HI all, I planted a 3" caliper x 12' tall Eastern Redbud tree in the fall of 2013. It didn't leaf out in the following spring. It was a hard winter so I kept an eye on it for the next few months, hoping it would leaf out, but it didn't. Next, I did bark scrapings to see if it was still alive and cut it way back to where the scrapings showed life. The entire top half of the tree was dead, so I literally cut the tree in half at the main trunk. After that, the tree took off and started growing new branches all along what was left of the trunk, which is now about 4' tall. The tree seems healthy now, but it looks terrible, So I'm wondering what I can do to make it look better and to resemble a natural growing tree. I've thought about removing the lower branches and tying one or two of the highest branches in a straight upward direction to resemble a main trunk in the hope that it will eventually have a normal shape. But, I'm not sure if this is a good idea. I've attached a couple photos. Any advice would be appreciated. thank you:confused:

I've read in this forum and other sites about using newspaper as weed control and I plan on doing that next year in my garden. One question though, is it OK to use the color ads/flyers that are inserted in the paper or should I just use the newsprint sections of the paper.