Behind the painted storefronts on Elk Avenue the town lots are small, the alleys are narrow, and every strip of green is worked by hand as much as by machine. Crested Butte Lawn & Garden takes care of exactly that kind of ground — mowing and trimming the little yards, edging along fence lines and walks, keeping beds weeded and mulched so they read as deliberate. Afternoons in July the thunderheads stack up over the ridges and the light goes theatrical, and a tidy garden in that light is a genuinely good thing to walk past. Spring cleanup here means clearing what the plow piles left behind and coaxing the ground back into use. It is close, patient work, sized to a town where people walk everywhere and see everything.