The first genuinely warm Saturday of March turns Columbia County inside out — azaleas breaking open along the fences, doors propped, mowers running from one end of the street to the other. North of Evans that is the signal to start the year: taking winter's brown down, clearing the beds, cutting back the lines that softened since October. From there it goes weekly, straight through a long Georgia summer, and the yards pay it back with dense green held even and walks and drives crisp against it. Trimming close around trees and posts is what separates a mowed yard from a finished one. Doing that finish on every visit is the point.