Down to Earth

About Down to Earth

Groveland traded its rough gold-camp name, Garrote, for a gentler one long ago, and on an October morning the town earns it: black oaks turning to brass, needles gathering in the gutters, cool air carrying woodsmoke. Down to Earth, based on Boitano Road, does lawn care here, and the name fits labor that is all about soil, grass and the ground underfoot. Autumn in these foothills calls for clearing a yard of what the trees let go and giving the turf one more even cut before the winter rains. It is hands-on, grounded work that anyone can see from the street. A lawn left trim beneath the oaks says a house is paying attention to its own corner of the Sierra.