The first real rain of the year usually finds Livermore in late October, and overnight the Granada and Mendenhall streets smell like wet asphalt and waking soil. Greens gardening treats that rain as a starting gun: lawns get cut back into shape, edges recut where summer blurred them, and the yard's accumulated dry litter is raked off before it goes soggy and mats the turf. From there the mowing rhythm picks up through the wet months when the grass is genuinely happy. Careful trimming around walks and fences keeps the whole yard reading crisp instead of merely green. It is straightforward gardening, done on the calendar this valley actually keeps.