By late July central Illinois turf has opinions — one week it's growing an inch a night, the next it's baked stiff and gone the color of straw. Turf Tamers reads that swing across Rochester yards: raising the deck when the heat sets in, cutting on time when the growth runs wild, trimming clean around beds and posts, and taking the concrete edges back to a straight line. Rank grass is easy to knock down and hard to knock down well, and the difference is whether a yard ends up looking mown or looking mangled. Even in the roughest stretch of summer a lawn can hold its shape. Getting it there is the fun part.