By the middle of October the ridges above Lumpkin County have gone copper and rust, the square fills with people up for the color, and every yard in Dahlonega begins collecting what the hardwoods let go. Taylor Lawn Solutions LLC spends those weeks on the unglamorous half of autumn — leaves off the turf, beds cleared out, the last cuts of the year taken a little lower, walks and driveways blown down to bare surface. Fall grass wants light and air more than it wants anything else, and a lawn buried under oak and poplar comes out of winter thin. There is a real satisfaction in the after picture: the brown gone, green showing again, a driveway you can see the full width of. Then the mowers go quiet for the cold stretch, and the yards wait it out.