Barrio Viejo in spring is all color — adobe in ochre and blue, mesquite leafing out, the low sun coming straight down the street at the end of the day. J&X Landscaping keeps downtown yards cut and clean, mowing small turf areas, trimming close along walls and gates, edging where grass meets brick and rock. Old lots come with tight corners and narrow side yards, so most of the finish work happens by hand rather than by machine. Weeds after rain, mesquite pods in early summer, leaf drop in the fall: all of it carried out rather than raked into a pile and abandoned. A tidy yard down here holds its own alongside all that old adobe.