A Saturday in high summer here smells like cut grass and hot pavement — half of Plainfield out in the yard, mowers going on every street between the highway and the river. Cutting on a schedule keeps a lawn ahead of that heat instead of chasing it: a consistent height, clean lines, trimming where the machine will never fit, edging that gives a drive its border back. There is something plainly good about the moment the engine shuts off and the yard is simply quiet and even. The season stretches from the first push in April to the last leaves in November, and a lawn gets a full going-over at both ends of it. Same streets, same yards, kept even all summer long.