A yard that has been tended gives something back every day you live on it — a patio that invites you outside after dinner, a walkway that leads you home without asking you to think about it, a lawn that looks like it belongs to the house. CT Master Lawn & Services LLC works that ground in Cromwell, Connecticut, where the land tilts toward the Connecticut River and the light comes long and low across the valley in the late afternoon. Their hands are in hardscape design carried from concept to completion — patios laid for poolside evenings, walkways set to follow the shape of a landscape, natural stone and stone veneer and masonry fitted so the joints look inevitable. Lawn care keeps the green side of the property honest through the growing months, and when the valley goes white, commercial snow plowing clears the lots and drives so the morning can start on time. Stone stays where it is set, and that is the pleasure of it: the work outlasts the day it was done.