August afternoons in Stickney start with a copper sky in the west — thunderheads stacking over the flat country beyond the Stevenson, then arriving all at once. JCO Lawn Care Services works around that clock: mowing and trimming early, edging and blowing before the first rumble, off the property before the sky opens. Late-summer grass here grows in surges, green after every storm and stubborn through every dry week between, which makes a steady schedule the entire trick. There is real pride in pulling up to a lawn that is thick and level in the last hot stretch of the year. Late summer is when kept yards separate themselves, and this is a crew that likes the comparison.