Late summer in Ignacio smells like cut hay and warm cottonwood, with the Los Piños River moving low and green through the valley and the San Juans standing blue away to the north. MC Landscape Services keeps yards here holding their color against that high-desert sun — mowing, edging, string trimming, fertilizing, aerating hard-packed ground, and clearing out beds when the seasons hand over. Water is the whole story in this country, and grass that gets tended thoughtfully repays what it is given. There is a real pleasure in a lawn that stays even and green through August while the mesas above it go to gold. Once the cool nights start, the property gets cut back and readied, and the valley settles into fall.