Up the Gothic Road and over toward Washington Gulch the spruce stand dark against the aspen, and that contrast is the whole visual language of a Crested Butte yard. Rocky Mountain Trees-Landscaping works with it — shrubs and hedges shaped, beds mulched, turf mowed and edged so the planted areas keep their outline against the wild ground beyond. Mornings up here start cold even in midsummer, and there is something clarifying about beginning the day's cutting while frost is still on the shaded side of things. Cleanups in spring pull out the winter litter; cleanups in fall take the leaves and needles before the snow packs them down. The result is a landscape that looks like it belongs to the mountain rather than argues with it.