Late May in Black Forest is a negotiation between pine shade and high sun, and a lawn up here has to be coaxed rather than commanded. Alternative Landscape & Maintenance works that in-between ground — mowing turf that runs right up to a curtain of trees near the Pineries Open Space, trimming where roots and duff make a straight line hard to find, raking off the needle litter no lawn should spend a summer under. Edges are cut clean along walks and beds so a yard reads as intentional instead of accidental. Spring and fall cleanups take the winter's fall and the season's last leaves off in a single sweep. It is ordinary care, done attentively, and the result is a green shelf of grass sitting neatly inside the forest.