September in Avra Valley smells like rain on granite, the last monsoon storms drifting off toward the Silverbell hills, the desert briefly and extravagantly green. Sonoran Landscaping Materials keeps Tucson yards up through that turn — mowing, trimming, edging, and clearing whatever the storms shook loose. The rains bring a weed flush that runs through rock and turf alike, so weeding rides along with the mowing every week. As the year cools the work shifts to cutbacks, bed clearing and removing leaf and limb litter. Ordinary upkeep, done on time, is the only thing keeping a desert yard from turning back into desert.