Elm Grove is a township more than a downtown — a grid of section roads laid over black Tazewell County soil, with hedgerows still marking the old field lines. JB Outdoor Services mows through the long central-Illinois summer, when grass puts on an inch overnight after a rain and the evenings stretch past nine o'clock. Trimming and edging give a place its shape, that even band between lawn and gravel that makes a whole farmstead look tended. Spring brings the winter's litter to gather up; October brings the leaves and the last careful cut before the ground goes quiet. Out here a well-kept yard is visible from a mile off, and that is a fine thing to be responsible for.