In Newport Beach the day is measured by the harbor: the first sailboats slipping their moorings, the little Balboa Island ferry shuttling three cars at a time across the channel, the late light turning the water to copper. Empire Design Landscape Association's lawn care unfolds among yards that sit close to sea walls, bluffs and spills of bougainvillea. June gloom keeps the grass cool and slow for weeks, then the sunny months push it back into growth, and either way the turf needs cutting and its edges need minding. Up at the Back Bay the herons stand motionless in the shallows, a reminder that this coastline favors patience. A lawn cropped short beside a Corona del Mar walkway, its border laid straight as a dock line, holds a little of that same unhurried calm.