Out toward Mumford Cove the roads bend with the shoreline and the yards run right down to the reeds, half lawn and half salt marsh depending on the tide. Murphy Lawn Care & Home Improvements takes the lawn half seriously: mowing on a set rotation, string trimming around posts and rock outcrops, edging along the drives, and cleanups that leave nothing behind but the smell of it. Grass near the water is stubborn stuff, thick where it is sheltered and thin where the wind gets through, and reading that is most of the job. Midsummer, the crew finishes and the cove goes flat and silver, and the yard sits there looking exactly as intended. Plain work, all season, all over Groton.