Turn off Route 8 in Beacon Falls and within a minute the road is climbing, narrowing and losing its center line, and that's where Back Roads Gardening & Landscapes LLC does most of its work. The yards up on those hills are hard-won — cut into ledge, edged by stone wall, half of them in dappled shade from oaks that were saplings when the mills were running down along the Naugatuck. Each one gets mowed to suit its light, trimmed in close where the ground rolls, edged so the gravel drive keeps a clean shoulder, and mulched in spring so the beds read dark and deliberate. In June the hillside laurel blooms white through the woods and a well-kept lawn beneath it looks like a small clearing someone loves. In November the leaves come off in one long week, and they get gathered until the grass shows again.