September is Ocean Beach's secret season: the crowds thin out, the water is about as warm as it gets all year, and afternoons along Sunset Cliffs stretch out bright and lazy over the surf. A few blocks back from Newport Avenue, the gardens tell their own coastal story, with salt on every leaf and a breeze that never quite stops. Progreen gardeners LLC does the patient garden and lawn work that keeps a small San Diego beach-town yard healthy in conditions that would wear a lesser garden down. That means cutting back what the sea wind tangles, keeping grass mowed and green, and leaving beds tidy enough to love but loose enough to feel like OB. When the sun slips into the Pacific off the cliffs, a well-gardened yard here feels like part of the shoreline itself.