May in Dixon smells like turned soil and cut grass at the same time, the season when everything wants to grow and somebody has to keep pace with it. Lawn work out of a garden center starts with the grass itself — mowing on a regular round, trimming the borders of beds and walks, and clearing winter litter from under shrubs before the first flush of green. Through summer it settles into the rhythm that keeps a yard even instead of shaggy-then-scalped. When the leaves come down along the river streets, the rakes come back out and the season closes tidy. Dixon, Grand Detour and Franklin Grove are within the round.