The growing season in the Elk Mountains is measured in weeks, not months — Snodgrass is still holding drifts when the first lawns want cutting, and frost can arrive any night of the year. Alpine Landscapes & Construction works inside that narrow window, which means the mowing, the feeding and the planting all have to be timed rather than merely scheduled. Beds get shaped and mulched, turf gets cut and edged, and everything is chosen and tended with the altitude in mind. When the wildflowers come on in July, a well-kept yard around Crested Butte doesn't compete with the hillsides; it makes a calm green frame for them. Then comes the fall cutback, done early here, because winter never asks permission.