Downtown Palatine wakes early around Towne Square, coffee and the clock and people cutting across toward the train, and by May everything green is coming on fast. MJ's Landscaping works that surge across the village, mowing and edging and trimming yards that seem to gain six inches between visits. May is generous and relentless in equal measure: thick grass, heavy clippings, and a difference between a kept lawn and a neglected one that gets measured in days. Getting ahead of it and staying there is most of the trade. The result is a front yard that looks composed on an ordinary Tuesday, which is exactly when it counts.