The Yard Squad

About The Yard Squad

Late afternoon on the mesa, the wind comes up off the dunes and runs through the eucalyptus windbreaks in long rows, and that is usually the hour The Yard Squad still has mowers going. Arroyo Grande gives a lawn two lives, the gold of a rainless summer and the sudden green that follows the first winter storms, and each one asks for something different. The crew mows, edges, trims fence lines, shapes hedges and clears the yard waste, working streets from the Village out toward the Lopez Lake road and down through Grover Beach and Oceano. What they are after is the finish: a level cut, a sharp edge at the driveway, nothing left scattered on the walk. Then the light goes orange over the valley, and the yard sits quiet, squared away for the week.