At noon in a Jacksonville August, a gator lies motionless on the bank of a neighborhood retention pond, and the whole humid city seems to slow down to its pace. Gator Irrigation and Landscaping does its work in that kind of month, when blistering sun and sudden downpours take turns on every yard. Irrigation is set to cover the dry gaps between storms, and the landscaping is laid out so beds and turf can take a two-inch cloudburst and the steaming heat that follows. This is work done in air thick enough to drink, steam lifting off hot asphalt, the smell of wet pine bark and crushed grass on every breath. What it leaves behind is a yard that looks settled and green, as unbothered by the weather as the gator on the bank.