Weld County runs on water that arrives by appointment: the ditch fills in spring, and by June every lawn in Platteville is drinking on a schedule someone wrote down. Green Valley Turf Co. keeps pace with that calendar, setting mowing height to what the month is asking for and trimming close along mailbox posts, meter boxes and fence wire. Feeding and weed control go on while the turf is growing hard, so color holds through the long dry stretch of August when the plains go brittle. Cleanups bookend the year — winter's litter off in spring, the leaf fall off before the ground shuts for good. Grass here earns its green, and from the sidewalk you can tell which yards have been kept and which have been left to the weather.