August in Barkhamsted can go weeks without real rain. The West Branch keeps running cold below the dam while up on the road the lawns fade to straw, and that's when Flora irrigation's work shows most clearly — grass cut at the right height for a dry spell, edges kept sharp, beds mulched deep enough to hold what moisture the night gives back. This is high, wooded country: the reservoir on one side, Peoples State Forest on the other, and yards carved out of hemlock shade where the sun only visits for a few hours. Care has to match the spot, so a mowing pattern that suits an open hilltop off Route 44 isn't the one used down in the hollows. Come September the rain returns, the color floods back in, and the lawn that was tended through the dry stretch is the one that greens up first.