September is when a Dixon lawn decides what it will look like next June — cool nights, warm soil, and grass finally growing for itself again. Autumn work leans into that: mowing kept regular, edges cut back along drives and walks, string trimming the borders, and leaves carried off before they smother the turf. Spring cleanups open the year, and the summer round holds it steady through the humid weeks that come up off the river. A yard tended all season shows it in the first green of the next one. Dixon, Sterling, Rock Falls, Ashton and Franklin Grove.