Northwest of Champaign the ground goes flat enough that a mowing line can run a quarter mile and never lose its nerve. Carlos Landscaping & Hardscapes cuts and edges lawns out here in Hensley, where the black soil grows grass as eagerly as it grows corn and a yard can get away from you in one week of warm rain. The work is simple and exacting: an even height, a clean line along the drive, the clippings blown off the walk before the truck pulls away. By late afternoon the shadows stretch long across the section roads and a trimmed edge shows up sharp all the way from the mailbox. It is a good feeling, coming back down a road you cut yesterday and finding it still holding its shape.