I have never had to take a banana tree out BUT I did remove 2 oak trees this spring by using a cordless reciprocating sawsall with a brush blade from diablo and I cut into the dirt and used a sharpened hole shooter shovel ( a skinny shovel) to lift them. I bet the saw will separate between the trees pretty well. The saw cut right through the dirt. I used a cordless but your power source is not far so one could use a corded sawmill. I would put a tarp down on that pretty rock work to keep the sap off of it. Duck tape it downs it won't move. Sawsalls are GREAT gardening tools

We have the same problem with pears falling in our pool. That tree will be going bye-bye whenever we can afford to have it removed. Pears are big enough to scoop with our Leaf Rake (we like this so much more than a skimmer, I cannot even tell you). The best leaf rakes have a scooped piece of plastic around the trim that helps scoop along the pool, and you can use that to get your acorns. Or you might get a Big Sucker Leaf Vacuum - I got one at my pool store and I think it's a common item. It's only about $20-30 or so and right in our budget. You hook it up to your hose and it has excellent suction and a large wide mouth that could easily get acorns I think. Also works great when we did our spring opening (we don't have a cover so had a brown swamp) or when you have a large volume of leaves.

For good, a 10 mile wide asteroid splashing down nearby at 40,000 miles per hr. Otherwise get a better miticide. Avid or Florimite will give weeks if not months of control. There are many other good miticides to chose from. One wk is totally unacceptable. Even oil will do better than that. Look on Ebay for smaller quantities if the big bottles for a couple hundred are too much.

I believe it is actually a very small amount of rust in your water source (from somewhere in your water supply). It takes very little in the water to make a stain, and accumulates over a long time. I had the same thing in my granite around the faucet after 8+ years, for example. I would look into using a rust removal chemical, Carbona makes a good one, but perhaps try a bit in the back w/ a cotton swab to first, or on a granite sample, before risking harming your granite. Good luck.