Above Grass

About Above Grass

By three in the afternoon the thunderheads have stacked themselves over the Ridge, and everybody working outdoors in Polk County is watching the sky. Above Grass reads that clock the way a boater reads water — mow, edge, string-trim, blow the walks, get the clippings up before the first fat drops come sideways off Lake Cannon. Summer in Winter Haven means grass that gains an inch between visits and a week that has to be rebuilt around rain. When the dry months come the pace eases, the color goes soft gold, and the same yards ask for a lighter hand. Either way the truck turns onto the next street, and the yard behind it looks tended.