Spring in the bottoms starts the moment the high water pulls back and the ground begins to steam; inside of two weeks the flat is green from the levee to the bluff. Rod's Lawn Care opens the season with cleanups — winter's dropped limbs, matted leaves, the gravel thrown into the turf — then settles into the weekly cut. Mowing, trimming, edging, and a walk-through at the end so nothing is left where it does not belong. It is a straightforward trade and it rewards showing up on the day you said you would. A Cahokia yard cut on time in May looks better in August, and that is most of the secret.