In the flat gray weeks after Christmas the lawns around Haskell go the color of straw, and that is when whatever is underneath them shows. Black Oak Property Services uses that season for cleanup — leaves and acorn litter raked and cleared off the turf, beds opened back up, limbs gathered, walks and drives swept to their edges. When green-up comes the mowing starts and holds all the way through, with trimming around posts and foundations and an edge kept along every line of concrete. Central Arkansas gives about eight growing months and one long exhale, and both halves need attention. A lawn tended in the quiet part of the year is the one that looks best in May.