The first cut of April is the one that changes everything: a yard goes from dull to green in a single pass and the smell of it carries halfway down the block. Kiefer Landscaping LLC opens Effingham's season with cleanups, then settles into weekly mowing, trimming and edging, laying mulch into beds while the redbuds are still out along the fencerows. The ground here is deep and dark and gives back what is put into it. Later come the leaves, and then the last mow before frost. It is a year with a real shape to it, and seeing a lawn through the whole arc is its own kind of pleasure.