October turns the oak and hickory stands east of Monee to rust, and the leaves come down over lawns that were green a month ago. Bertrand Landscape spends those weeks with rakes and blowers, clearing turf so it can breathe through the cold and cutting a clean shoulder where lawn meets planting bed. The rest of the year it is cutting, trimming and the steady tending that keeps a yard looking cared for. Prairie soil here holds water after a hard rain, and knowing where it sits is half of doing the job well. A yard put to bed properly in fall is a yard that comes back sooner in April.