Peck n' Trim

About Peck n' Trim

Late summer near San Juan Park, the scrub jays own the afternoons and the shrubs have gotten shaggy enough to hide them completely. Peck n' Trim goes at the details of a Citrus Heights yard the way a bird works a branch — small, precise passes until the shape is right and the light gets back inside the hedge. Mowing sets the field; the trimming is what gives a property its punctuation, the neat line under the eaves, the round of a boxwood, the fence row cleared of grass. It is fussy work and it is the difference between mowed and finished. Come evening the yard looks combed, and the jays have to find somewhere else to hide.