There is a farm on the south edge of town, Willoughby, where the paths run out through restored prairie and a pond sits quiet under the treeline — proof that a landscape kept with intent gets better every single year. That is the standard carried into ordinary Collinsville yards: shape the beds, set plants where they will actually thrive, mulch them in, keep the grass cut so the design reads from the street. Landscaping is slow work with fast moments — the afternoon a bed finally looks finished, the first mow after a week of rain. Illinois hands out sticky Junes and wide-open blue Octobers, and both are good months for building something outdoors. What stays behind is a yard with a shape to it.