Back to the Espalier, and a Little about the Pool

The weather is really warming up around here. Today its supposed to be around 18°C but overcast. That means spring is in the air.

With the warm weather, I've been watching the apple tree starts for signs of life. This is a bit of a sweat it out kind of a watch. You may remember that back a few months ago the dog attacked the espalier - a totally unexpected setback, and I had to replant a few trees because of that.

So I've been watching. I replaced 2 trees that were most definitely dead, and there are a few others that I think are likely to need replacing, but at $30 each, and a long drive to get them, I am hoping these trees find a way to survive. In any case, it is with great relief that I can report some of the trees have started to leaf out. I don't have new growth yet, but I do have buds popping and tiny leafs on the twigs poking out of the ground. I am thrilled that the entire fruit tree collection isn't dead (yet). If Bernie attacks the trees again, her life will be severely shortened.

On another note, the backyard reno is continuing with the pool deck in line after fencing. Our pool deck looks like a skate park. It is all hills and valleys and broken concrete. It drops 3-1/2 inches over 3 feet along the sides, and has cracks and chunks missing in other places.

Yesterday we had a gent from Westview Contracting by to work out a quote to overlay the concrete with a rubber polymer (Rubaroc). Hopefully this will make the deck not only more esthetically pleasing, but also increase its functionality, and extend the life of the concrete base. We were considering having the concrete replaced with interlocking brick, but the rubber overlay came in $2500 cheaper (or so) and has the potential to look much better. We are trying to keep to all-cash so we are saving toward this before committing. I suspect we will have the work done late in the summer. Before we go ahead with the overlay, I also have to reach out to a pool company to figure out the logistics of adjusting the height of the strainer basket to accommodate the new overlay, and to see what can be done about the cracked coping around the pool, and the liner stretching out in the corners.

Always more work to be done! In the interim I continue to build fence parts...

If you are following the espalier, try this link for our next update!